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The divide between Republicans and Democrats on pot politics is narrowing, President Barack Obama said in an interview Monday.

"What I'm encouraged by is you're starting to see not just liberal Democrats but also some very conservative Republicans recognize this doesn't make sense including sort-of the libertarian wing of the Republican Party," the president said in an interview with Vice News.

During the wide-ranging interview, Obama noted that the American criminal justice system is "so heavily skewed toward cracking down on non-violent drug offenders" and has has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color, as well as taking a huge financial toll on states. But, Obama added, Republicans are beginning to see that cost.

"So we may be able to make some progress on the decriminalization side," Obama said. "At a certain point if enough states end up decriminalizing, then Congress may then reschedule marijuana."

Reclassifying marijuana as what's called a Schedule 2 drug, rather than a Schedule 1 drug is part of a bill being pushed by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican weighing a potential White House bid, as well as Democrats Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

The unlikely trio of lawmakers unveiled their bill, which would also remove federal prohibitions on medical marijuana in the more than a quarter of states where it's already legal, last week.

"We, as a society, are changing our opinions on restricting people's choices as far as medical treatments," Paul, who has been a vocal critic of the so-called war on drugs, said last week.

"There is every reason to try and give more ease to people in the states who want this — more freedom for states and individuals," Paul added.

Paul's emphasis on states' rights is in line with the Republican belief that the federal government should keep its hands out of local affairs. But this is also a political sweet spot as a majority of Americans back more liberal marijuana laws.

In fact, 51 percent of Americans said they favor legalization of marijuana, according to the most recent Gallup survey. That's part of a decade-long trend more in favor of legalization. In 2004, nearly two-thirds of Americans were against it.

Support for legalization has increased over the last decade, polls have shown. Gallup hide caption

itoggle caption Gallup

Medical marijuana is currently legal in 23 states and in Washington D.C., and voters in four states and Washington D.C. have approved marijuana for recreational use. But it remains illegal at the federal level.

"Members of Congress tend to be between five to 10 years behind the public on this issue," Dan Riffle, the director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, said in an interview. "Medical marijuana is more popular in this country than baseball and apple pie, and it's certainly more popular than Congress. What this bill means, and what it shows, is Congress is finally catching up to the public on this issue and recognizes that this is a slam dunk."

While it might not drive the voters that tend to make up the vote in early presidential primary states, it came up at last month's Conservative Political Action Conference.

At the recent gathering, which typically draws droves of young conservative activists to the Washington D.C. area, nearly two-thirds of the 3,000 people who participated in the straw poll said they want to see marijuana legalized for either recreational or medicinal purposes.

At CPAC, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was asked whether he believed Colorado's recent decision to legalize marijuana was a good idea or bad idea.

Cruz initially responded with a joke.

"I was told Colorado provided the brownies here today," he said.

He added that states have the right to legalize marijuana, despite his personal position on it.

"I actually think this is a great embodiment of what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called the laboratories of democracy," Cruz said. "If the citizens of Colorado decide they want to go down that road, that's their prerogative. I don't agree with it, but that's their right."

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, asked the same question, echoed the same argument.

"I thought it was a bad idea," Bush said, "but states ought to have that right to do it. I would have voted no if I was in Colorado."

On the other side of the aisle, Democrat Hillary Clinton — who most expect to jump into the presidential race – sounded... a lot like Ted Cruz.

"On recreational [marijuana], you know, states are the laboratories of democracy," she told CNN in June. "We have at least two states that are experimenting with that right now. I want to wait and see what the evidence is."

Clinton said she supports medical marijuana for "people who are in extreme medical conditions."

2016 Presidential Race

Ted Cruz

Jeb Bush

Kirsten Gillibrand

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Rand Paul

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Hillary Clinton

Barack Obama

Officials in Vanuatu are still assessing damage from what President Baldwin Lonsdale says was "a monster" — Cyclone Pam, a strong storm that hit the small nation in the South Pacific with winds that damaged or destroyed 90 percent of the buildings in the capital, Lonsdale says.

"This is a very devastating cyclone in Vanuatu. I term it as a monster, a monster," he said. "It's a setback for the government and for the people of Vanuatu. After all the development that has taken place, all this development has been wiped out."

At least eight deaths have been blamed on the cyclone; a full tally of casualties and damage may still be days away. Some 33,000 of Vanuatu's more than 260,000 people live on outer islands, many of which were cut off from communication by the storm.

"The scale of humanitarian need will be enormous and the proud people of Vanuatu are going to need a lot of help to rebuild their homes and their lives," Oxfam Country Director Colin Collet van Rooyen says. "Entire communities have been blown away."

Neither Lonsdale nor the leader of Vanuatu's disaster management agency were in their country when the cyclone hit late Friday and early Saturday; they were attending a global conference on disaster risk reduction in Japan. As Reuters reports, the group left for Japan last Tuesday, before Pam veered toward their nation's chain of more than 80 islands.

"We don't know what happened to our families," Lonsdale said today. "There is a breakdown of communication so that we cannot reach our families. We do not know if our families are safe or not. As the leader of the nation, my whole heart is for the whole people of the nation."

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An aerial view of damaged houses in Port Vila, Vanuatu, Monday. Cyclone Pam hit the South Pacific nation on Saturday with hurricane-force winds, huge ocean swells and flash flooding. Pool/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Pool/Getty Images

An aerial view of damaged houses in Port Vila, Vanuatu, Monday. Cyclone Pam hit the South Pacific nation on Saturday with hurricane-force winds, huge ocean swells and flash flooding.

Pool/Getty Images

The Vanuatu delegation has used its presence in Japan to plead for help from neighboring nations and relief agencies. Rapid-response teams from Australia, New Zealand and the U.N. were sent to Vanuatu over the weekend.

Vanuatu is commonly ranked as one of the world's most vulnerable places for natural disasters to occur. It faces risks that include earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, and flooding.

As we reported Saturday, "Most of Vanuatu's structures are built of lightweight material such as bamboo and designed to withstand earthquakes, but not cyclones."

The BBC reports: "The air here is very thick with smoke because the cleanup has already begun — the debris is being chopped down, collected and burned. There is a sense here that people will rebuild but it only takes a brief moment in the capital to realize that this rebuilding effort will take many months if not years."

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Picture yourself standing at a bus station in Nairobi, Kenya. The unwritten rule is that none of these minibuses (shared taxis, called matatus) will leave until they have enough passengers. That can be around 20 or more people. So every matatu has a tout shouting at top volume — even banging on the side of the bus — to corral more customers.

All of a sudden, what looks like a discotheque on wheels pulls up.

Music blasts from souped-up speakers. Strobe lights flash on the inside walls and seat backs. The exhaust pipe is purposely pinched to rev like a motorcycle. And unlike the drab greens of the average van, this one is painted with airbrushed portraits of Jimi Hendrix and Elvis and Johnny Cash — as well as lyrical fragments from the songs of the Beatles and Maroon 5.

Commuters make a beeline for the magical bus.

Nairobi's famous matatu art is making a comeback.

Kenya's president recently lifted a 10-year ban on matatu art. Bus owners are sending their vehicles to garages and paying artists like Roy Mungai, a.k.a. Great (who designed the Rolling Stone bus above) about $1,000 per vehicle. No surprise — a painted, souped-up matatu can charge double the fare of a plain one.

Which makes one wonder: Why did Kenya's government banish graffiti from its public transportation in the first place? And why would commuters pay twice as much to ride an artsy matatu?

Let's start with the appeal to commuters. A bus with graffiti turns out to be the speediest way to get from point A to point B. If young people prefer a painted bus that plays loud music, and they seem to, then it fills up faster. It leaves sooner. It gets places on time. And thus it's more popular with anyone who can afford the extra fare.

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Roy Mungai (a.k.a. Great) adds color to the windshield. Gregory Warner/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Gregory Warner/NPR

Roy Mungai (a.k.a. Great) adds color to the windshield.

Gregory Warner/NPR

It's a circle: Graffiti triggers enough of a change in commuter behavior that what may look like irreverent art is actually a source of profit for private bus owners. And that's why matatu owners have been flaunting the ban — and pressuring the government to allow artists to work.

As for the ban, the reason was road safety. Back in the day, artists would pretty much cover the windows and the windshield, leaving just a narrow strip for the driver to see through. Visibility was so limited that drivers would have to open the windows just to know where they were.

Understandably, many Kenyans are fearful now that the artists are back in business. They say the government caved to rich and powerful matatu owners.

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Yes, that is the late Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi. On a bus. In Nairobi. Gregory Warner/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Gregory Warner/NPR

Yes, that is the late Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi. On a bus. In Nairobi.

Gregory Warner/NPR

But the new generation of graffiti artists won't be blocking every inch of glass. Although that doesn't mean they'll be reining in their wilder instincts.

Roy Mungai, 27, is one of the bus decorators. Mungai studied 3D animation in college. Before he picks up a can of spray paint or steps into the garage, he'll map out his ideas on his laptop with CorelDRAW. He goes by the name "Great."

Many matatus in Nairobi are homages to various themes or brands, and Mungai's are no exception. The Rolling Stone matatu plays off Kenya's love of rock music. His newer projects include a riff off the logo of Rockford Fosgate, a maker of car sound systems, as well as an ironic tribute to the NYPD (complete with Keith-Haring-esque silhouettes of police beating civilians).

Despite his boastful name, Great is humble about his work. He grew up in a Nairobi slum admiring what he enviously calls "real matatu graffiti."

And he argues that the distinctive look of a matatu bus is actually a plus when it comes to the welfare of pedestrians. If you're run over by a speeding matatu and lucky enough to still be conscious, his advice: Don't worry about memorizing the license plate. Just focus on the three-foot-tall spray-painted face of the late Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi speeding away from you.

graffiti

Kenya

Officials and activists from around the world gathered in New York this week to mark the 20th anniversary of the landmark 1995 World Conference on Women.

Although there were a lot of depressing statistics discussed at the current meeting, there was one piece of good news that many kept citing as reason for hope: Since 1995 the rate of women worldwide who die in childbirth has dropped by more than 40 percent.

When you look deeper into that statistic, there's even more reason to celebrate. Sometimes a rosy global health statistic can overstate the extent of change. A few large countries that improve their situation pull up the average, masking the fact that everyone else has stagnated or worse. But the maternal mortality rate has plunged by 40 percent or more in at least 76 countries — that's close to half of the world's nations.

Goats and Soda

For Babies, Preterm Birth Is Now The No. 1 Cause Of Death

What's more, many of the countries where maternal mortality rates did not fall significantly are wealthy nations in North America and Europe where the rate was low to start with.

Meanwhile, a few of the countries where pregnant women faced the greatest risk back in 1995 have seen the greatest improvement. In Afghanistan, the number of women dying in childbirth per 100,000 live births plunged from 1,200 in 1995 to 400 by 2013 — that's about a 66 percent drop. The maternal death rate also declined spectacularly in Angola, Laos and Rwanda.

That said, maternal death remains a serious problem. Globally the maternal mortality rate remains high at 210 deaths per 100,000 live births. And every year 289,000 women die from childbirth — most of them from preventable causes and almost all of them, in places with minimal resources.

Goats and Soda

Dangerous Deliveries: Ebola Leaves Moms And Babies Without Care

Improving maternal health worldwide will require a heavy focus on sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 62 percent of annual deaths. Southern Asia is the other hotspot — a fourth of maternal deaths occur there.

But the data suggest that two countries in particular need attention: India and Nigeria. Taken together, they are the site of about one-third all global maternal deaths.

Both countries have already made great strides. Nigeria's maternal mortality rate in 2013 is almost half the rate it was in 1995, for instance.

The solution to bringing the mortality rate down further seems to lie in doing more of what has already worked so well. According to several studies, a major reason maternal mortality rates have fallen is that more women are getting access to skilled attendants at birth. About three-fourths of women who die during child birth have major complications that a health worker could address. For instance, severe bleeding can be stopped by injecting the mother with oxytocin after birth, or an infection can be avoided through proper hygiene. In several regions, more women have access to contraception — which allows them to avoid dangerous pregnancies too soon after a previous birth or an unsafe abortion.

maternal health

pregnancy

babies

Global Health