#020 — Best News of Last Week
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The federal legislation to ban conversion therapy practices in Canada received royal assent on Wednesday, meaning the bill is now a law, but the new criminal offences won’t be in effect until early January.
Per the coming-into-force provisions of the bill, the four new Criminal Code violations will be enacted 30 days after it received royal assent, which will be Jan. 7. That means that in a month it will be illegal to subject someone of any age, consenting or not, to so-called conversion therapy.
2. Looted Gilgamesh tablet returns to Iraq in formal ceremony
A small clay tablet dating back 3,500 years and bearing a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh that was looted from an Iraqi museum 30 years ago and recently recovered from the United States formally returned to Iraq on Tuesday.
The $1.7 million cuneiform tablet, known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, is one of the world’s oldest surviving works of literature and one of the oldest religious texts. It was found in 1853 as part of a 12-tablet collection in the rubble of the library of Assyrian King Assur Banipal.
Plastic surgeon Dr Subodh Kumar Singh struggled in his childhood days to become a doctor; he now offers free corrective surgeries to kids born with cleft lip/palate.
From 2002, Dr Singh began a free treatment week to mark his father’s death anniversary. He started performing corrective cleft surgeries from 2003–04, became a part of The Smile Train project (globally the largest cleft surgery-focused organisation). “We set a target of 2,500 cleft surgeries by December 2005. The Smile Train India team, while considering our target too ambitious, asked us to go for just 500 free surgeries by 2005-end. We crossed that figure by 2004-end and went beyond 2,500 by the following year end,” says Dr Subodh. “Since 2008–09, we annually perform 4,000-plus free cleft surgeries under this initiative.”
Professional Photographers of America are huge donors to this cause. You can donate to him here .
“Superman” star Henry Cavill has revealed that not all heroes wear capes — some just have fluffy paws. “He really is (my best friend),” the 38-year-old told Kelly as he stroked Kal. “We go everywhere together. He’s 8 now and he has saved my emotional, psychological bacon plenty of times.”
5. California tackles food waste with largest recycling program in US
California will soon enact the largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program in the US in January, an effort designed to dramatically cut down on organic waste in landfills and reduce the state’s methane emissions.
“This is the biggest change to trash since recycling started in the 1980s,” said Rachel Wagoner, the director of the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery.
Starbucks workers at a store in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize on Thursday, a first for the 50-year-old coffee retailer in the U.S. and the latest sign that the labor movement is stirring after decades of decline.
Lets go Buffalo, clap clap, clap clap clap
Chile has legalised same-sex marriage following a 21–8 vote in the Senate. Later, the House also passed the bill in an 82–20 vote. The bill was introduced in 2017 by former president Michelle Bachelet, who currently serves as Human Rights chief at the UN.
President Sebastián Piñera, a conservative billionaire, shocked many with his unexpected push in favour of the idea.
That’s it for this week. Until next week, stay safe and don’t forget to share this newsletter with your friends :)
