NPR News

Every week lots of films make their way onto video, and we turn to Bob Mondello to tell us about the cream of the cinematic crop. This week, Bob's recommending a film that was just up for an Academy Award – the documentary Waste Land.

In a sprawling landfill in Brazil, thousands of catadores — trash-pickers — scramble over freshly arrived truckloads of garbage through much of Waste Land. They're sorting the trash into recyclables for about $20 a day, barely enough to live on, even in the dump.

Japan's emergency has provoked sympathy around the world, including from its near neighbor China, with whom relations have been traditionally tense.

China has acted fast, sending disaster relief and organizing the evacuation of its own citizens from the disaster zone. This disaster also has caused some Chinese to view Japan through fresh eyes.

Social Security has long been considered the third rail in American politics — those who touch it risk getting a huge shock. And yet on Capitol Hill, there's a growing drumbeat from Republicans to revise the rules of the nation's premier retirement program as part of a larger push to rein in deficit spending. For them, it's an article of faith that Social Security's days are numbered. They want Democrats — especially President Obama — to join their cause, and share whatever political pain may come with it.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Egyptians on Tuesday that "this moment of history belongs to you," and they should use it to build on the success of the revolution that ousted the country's longtime autocratic leaders and to embrace democratic reforms.

"Today, Egypt is rising. Egypt, the mother of the world, is now giving birth to democracy," Clinton said.

Making her first visit to what she called the "new Egypt," Clinton said the country's path to elections and greater freedom will be hard work but that America will help.

There's no mention of the crisis in Japan and what effect it may or may not have on the global economy, so in some sense the statement just released by policymakers at the Federal Reserve may be superseded in coming weeks as that event plays out.

But here's what the members of the Federal Open Market Committee are thinking about how the economy is doing: