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Federal judge shields more trans inmates from Trump order

(NYT) — A federal judge on Monday shielded more transgender women housed in federal prisons from an executive order that would have transferred them from all-female to all-male units and ended their hormone treatment.

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In one of a series of orders targeting transgender Americans, President Donald Trump directed the federal Bureau of Prisons on Jan. 20 to house all transgender women according to their sex at birth and halt any gender-related medical treatment.

But the order hit legal hurdles after several transgender prisoners sued, arguing that being transferred would place them at a high risk of physical and sexual violence and that ending their treatments would be physically “devastating” and raise their risk of suicide.

Roberta Flack, singer-pianist who ruled the charts, dies at 88

(NYT) — Roberta Flack, the singer and pianist whose blend of soul, jazz and folk made her one of the most popular artists of the 1970s, died Monday in New York. She was 88. Suzanne Koga, her manager and friend, said the cause was cardiac arrest. Flack zoomed to worldwide stardom in 1972, after her version of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was featured in a Clint Eastwood film. Within weeks it was at No. 1 on the Billboard chart — a perch she would reclaim two more times, with “Killing Me Softly With His Song” (1973) and “Feel Like Makin’ Love” (1974).

Lester Holt to step down as anchor of ‘NBC Nightly News’

(NYT) — Lester Holt, the veteran NBC newscaster and anchor of the “NBC Nightly News” over the past decade, announced Monday that he will step down from the flagship evening newscast in the coming months.

Holt told colleagues that he would remain at NBC, expanding his duties at “Dateline,” where he serves as the show’s anchor.

“It has truly been the honor of a lifetime to work with each of you every day, keeping journalism as our true north and our viewers at the center of everything we do,” Holt, 65, wrote in a memo to colleagues.

He said that he would continue anchoring the evening news until “the start of summer.” The network did not immediately name a successor.

Holt provided a steady hand to “NBC Nightly News” when he ascended to the job in 2015.

Hopes fade for workers trapped in tunnel in India

(NYT) — Indian officials have warned that the chances of survival for eight people believed to have been trapped in a collapsed tunnel for several days are remote, after a rush of silt and water caused the ceiling to cave in over the weekend.

The group was working on the Srisailam Left Bank Canal tunnel project in the southern Indian state of Telangana, a decades-long effort to build one of the world’s longest irrigation tunnels, which has been plagued by a series of delays since construction began in 2005.

The workers were about 9 miles inside the tunnel on Saturday morning when the roof collapsed after a rush of silt and water, according to local officials and news reports. Some escaped, but eight were left trapped behind a tunnel-boring machine that blocked their exit.