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An extract from Omar El Akkad's new book argues that Gaza put to bed the fantasy of the USA as freedom fighter

Gordon Cordeiro now adjusting to life with phones after judge overturned his conviction in 1994 Maui shootingOne of the first places Gordon Cordeiro visited when a judge ordered him released after spending 30 years in prison for a killing he always maintained he had nothing to do with was his mother's Hawaii gravesite.In a videoconference interview on Saturday with the Associated Press, Cordeiro reflected on his first day of freedom after new DNA evidence led to the overturning of his conviction in the 1994 shooting of Timothy Blaisdell on the island of Maui. Continue reading...

Situation on American Airlines flight originally bound for New Delhi reportedly involved bomb threat sent by emailAn American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi landed safely in Rome on Sunday afternoon after it was diverted due to a security concern, which later proved to be non-credible", the airline said.While the airline did not elaborate, NBC reported that the situation involved a bomb threat sent by email. The network cited a source familiar with the situation. Continue reading...

Warning comes as FCC, chaired by Trump ally and Project 2025 author, orders investigations into US media groupsThe Trump administration is waging a disturbing" attack on the freedom of the press that amounts to a true free-speech emergency", media experts have warned, as the Federal Communications Commission recently launched an investigation into a series of media organizations, including the owner of NBC News.The FCC, led by Donald Trump appointee and Project 2025 author Brendan Carr, has ordered investigations into NPR and PBS in the first month since Trump took office, while also scrutinizing a CBS News interview and a San Francisco radio station. Continue reading...

It follows Russia's biggest ever aerial attack on Ukraine. Plus, far-right AfD doubles support in German electionGood morning.The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, hailed three years of resistance ... three years of absolute heroism of Ukrainians", as foreign leaders arrived in Kyiv to mark the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion.What's the latest war news? Russia launched its biggest drone attack on Ukraine, using 267 drones and killing at least four people.What did Zelenskyy say about US demands? He claimed the Trump administration was asking Ukraine to pay back $2 for every $1 of military aid the US provides going forward.What do we know about the death toll after three years of war? Zelenskyy said in December that 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed, with 370,000 injured. US officials estimated last October that 600,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded. In November, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights verified 12,162 civilians killed, including 659 children, though the total is likely much higher. Continue reading...

Whenever you see a horror of anti-democratic rule, remember Mitch McConnell. You have him to thankYou would think that this is exactly what Mitch McConnell wanted. McConnell, the 83-year-old Kentucky senator - who announced last week that he will retire in 2026 and not seek an eighth term - is one of the most influential Republicans in the history of the party. But he has in recent weeks expressed dissent and discontent with the direction of the Republican party. He voted against some of Donald Trump's cabinet appointees, refusing, for example, to cast a vote for the confirmation of the anti-diversity campaigner and alleged rapist and drunk Pete Hegseth.He has also voiced some tepid and belated opposition to Republicans' extremist agenda, citing his own experience as a survivor of childhood polio as a reason for his opposition to Republican attacks on vaccines. But the Republican party that McConnell is now shaking his head at is the one that he created. He has no one but himself to blame.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

The death of one of the sea's uglier creatures has led to an outpouring online. What is it about this unfortunate creature that has evoked such big feelings?Here's an unexpected addition to our 2025 bingo card: young women across the internet have been devastated by the demise of a nightmarish fanged fish. A black seadevil anglerfish (unflatteringly described by one marine biologist as pretty much evolved to be a giant head"), usually a deep-sea dweller, was recently caught on camera swimming close to the surface by a shark research group near Tenerife. Sadly, apparently sick or injured, it died.This, however, was only the start of the anglerfish's journey in the hearts and TikToks of young women. The fish's story has triggered an outpouring of emotion. The narrative they have adopted is that the tiny anglerfish, who lived her life in darkness, wanted to feel the sun on her face", so swam alone through the vast ocean to do that before expiring. There have been tattoos, poetry and oceans of tears. If you have a girlfriend right now, do yourself a favour and go ask her how she's feeling about the anglerfish," wrote one TikTok user. There is a 98% chance she has already bawled her eyes out about it." Continue reading...

Exclusive: Terrorist group the Base appears defiant as new administration aims to deprioritize threat from far rightAn international neo-Nazi terrorist group with origins in the US appears to be quickly rebuilding its global and stateside ranks, according to information obtained by the Guardian from its digital accounts.Founded in 2018, the Base has been the intense focus of a years-long FBI counter-terrorism investigation that has resulted in more than a dozen of its members arrested. It has plotted an assassination, mass shootings and other actions in Europe, which made it a proscribed terrorist organization in several countries. Continue reading...

After bouncing back remarkably from a major knee injury, the Fighting Irish point guard could overtake UConn's Paige Bueckers in AprilThere aren't a lot of people who can tell you what it feels like to enter college knowing professional teams already see you as a potential No 1 draft pick four years down the road. There are even fewer who can share how they prepared to hit a college court as an early enrollee, starting on a team with players three to four years older than them.There are fewer still who had all that under their belts and then suffered a season-ending (and potentially career-ending) injury a year later - and who bounced back in such a tremendous way. Continue reading...

Millie had fantastic recall, unlike mine. Now there are parts of my past - and myself - that I'll never be able to rememberI was midway through Kathryn Mannix's With the End in Mind when it happened. It's a comforting book - the author is a palliative care consultant - that describes the basics of a good death: a diminuendo. The mind fades. The breath slows. Inevitably, gently, life stops.And then I got the call: my sister Millie had died. Her death, at the age of 47, was sudden and unexpected. She was my only sibling - four years younger than me. I put the book down. I'll probably never finish it.Jason Hazeley is a comedy writer who is partly responsible for TV untellectual Philomena CunkDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Like a judo master, the Russian aggressor wears down his opponents until they break. Then he comes back for moreI have a friend, an American author, who writes about war. Over the past decades, he has been to South Sudan, Rwanda, Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza and other conflict zones. In the case of Ukraine, he said one thing stood out: here it was obvious who was the aggressor and who was the victim. Alongside Bosnia, Ukraine's resistance to Russia remains, in his opinion, one of two truly just wars.After three years of fighting a just war against Putin's aggression, we are now facing, with Donald Trump, an unjust peace. Ukraine will lose lands and will not receive compensation for its losses. War crimes will go unpunished and Ukrainians will not be provided with the security guarantees needed to protect them from future Russian attack.Yaroslav Hrytsak is a historian and professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv Continue reading...

The sooner the US's former friends realise the old global order is over, the sooner they can organise to regain power and agency - the only language Trump understandsA resonant phrase during Donald Trump's first administration was the advice to take him seriously, but not literally". It was a singularly detrimental expression, widely quoted by politicians and the media. Its adoption fit with the position many felt most comfortable taking: Trump was bad, but he wasn't smart. He wasn't intentional. He wasn't calculated and deliberate. He sounded off, but rarely followed up with action. He was in essence a misfiring weapon that could do serious damage, but mostly by accident.The residue of that approach still persists, even in analysis that describes Trump's first executive orders as a campaign of shock and awe", as if it were just a matter of signalling rather than executing. Or that his plan for Gaza is to be taken - you guessed it - seriously, not literally. When that was suggested to Democratic senator Andy Kim, he lost it. I understand people are bending over backwards to try to mitigate some of the fallout from these statements that are made," he told Politico. But Trump is the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the world ... if I can't take the words of the president of the United States to actually mean something, rather than needing some type of oracle to be able to explain, I just don't know what to think about when it comes to our national security."Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

It's Donald Trump's world now we are just living in it (derogatory)

Selection of former Secret Service agent and author means two staunch Trump allies lead the principal federal law enforcement agencyDan Bongino, a former US Secret Service agent who has written bestselling books, run unsuccessfully for office and gained fame as a conservative pundit with TV shows and a popular podcast, has been chosen to serve as the FBI's deputy director.President Donald Trump announced the appointment on Sunday night in a post on his Truth Social platform, praising Bongino as a man of incredible love and passion for our country". He called the announcement great news for law enforcement and American justice". Continue reading...

On a fairly subdued red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild awards, the cast of Wicked stood out in full fantasy regalia. Here's a look at what the stars wore - including Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Timothee Chalamet, Monica Barbaro, Jeremy Allen White and Demi Moore

From a fight over a $500bn minerals deal to Trump surrendering to the Russians' - here are the key US politics stories from Sunday at a glanceAs Ukraine prepared to mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of the country, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he would be willing to step down if it meant peace or membership of Nato, something the US and some other Nato member states oppose. Zelenskyy insisted he wanted good, friendly" relations with America - a strategic partner" - and shrugged off Trump's bruising description of him as a dictator" for not holding elections during wartime.But he also said that he would not sign a $500bn minerals deal proposed by the US. He said the figure was far higher than the US's actual military contribution of $100bn. Continue reading...

All but handful of agency's personnel around world to be placed on paid leave, according to notice sent to workersThe Trump administration on Sunday said it was placing all but a handful of USAid personnel around the world on paid administrative leave and eliminating about 2,000 of those positions in the US, according to a notice sent to agency workers and posted online.As of 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, February 23, 2025, all USAid direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally," the notice said. Continue reading...

Oklahoma's Markwayne Mullin says he would not change constitution unless the American people chose to do that'A conservative lawmaker poured cold water on extremist Republican fantasies that Donald Trump could find a way to run for an unconstitutional third presidential term, saying he would not support that barring an amendment to the US constitution that would legalize it.Asked Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press about Trump's boasts that he might just stay in the Oval Office after his second presidency ends in 2028, the Republican US senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said: No, I'm not changing the constitution, first of all, unless the American people chose to do that." Continue reading...

Enrique Tarrio denies involvement despite organizers attributing threat to someone claiming to be Enrique T'Attendees of a center-right political conference in Washington DC were forced to evacuate on Sunday, after someone claiming to be Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group who was convicted and then pardoned for his role in the January 6 insurrection, allegedly emailed in a bomb threat against the event. Tarrio denied any involvement in the incident.Organizers of the Principles First summit, which is considered a center-right alternative to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), confirmed the bomb threat after they abruptly asked attendees to clear the room hosting the conference. Continue reading...

Agency reportedly seeking guidance from DoJ as Musk's demand sparks confusion across key government agenciesThe new FBI director, Kash Patel, has told his agency employees to hold off on responding to an email from the Donald Trump administration asking them to list their accomplishments in the last week as tech billionaire Elon Musk expands his crusade to slash the federal government's size.Hundreds of thousands of federal workers had been given little more than 48 hours to explain what they achieved to the office of personnel management (OPM), sparking confusion across key agencies that included the US's top law enforcement agency. Continue reading...

Senator Jack Reed hits out at Trump's verbal attacks on Ukrainian president and increased alignment with RussiaA senior Democratic lawmaker accused Donald Trump of surrendering to the Russians" on Sunday, as Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff said talks between the US and Russia over Ukraine was the only way to end the carnage".In an interview on ABC News' This Week, Democratic senator Jack Reed, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, hit out at Trump's recent verbal attacks on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and increased alignment with Russia. Continue reading...

The slash-and-burn approach of Trump and his Doge' head Musk has reinvigorated resistance to the administrationOn a bright winter's day this week, a group of protesters fanned out along a palm tree-lined thoroughfare in the picturesque city of Palm Desert to demand that their Republican congressman stand up to Donald Trump and Elon Musk's slash-and-burn effort to reshape the American government. You work for us, not Musk!" read one sign. Remember your oath," another warned, as a mobile billboard circled nearby, featuring the president and the billionaire tech mogul, with the message: When he's snooping through your bank accounts, you dump him."The group, dozens strong, cheered wildly when the driver of a white Tesla turned the corner and laid on his horn. A smaller contingent of constituents had attempted to secure a meeting with the congressman, Ken Calvert, but found the door of his regional office locked and the blinds drawn. Continue reading...

The eclectic neighborhood was devastated by the wildfire last month; galleries and artists are now working to protect its legacyA charred baby Slinky, a handful of book ash, blackened cowrie shells from a necklace made in Ghana. These are some of the remnants of precious things the artist Kenturah Davis has salvaged from what is left of her Altadena home.Nearby, there is virtually nothing left of her parents' home of 40 years. Gone are her mother's intricately stitched quilts and a trove of paintings and sketches Davis's father made of Hollywood backlots during his decades of working on television and movie sets. Continue reading...

ReidOut is being cancelled as part of a lineup shuffle being helmed by the network's new president, Rebecca KutlerMSNBC has reportedly canceled longtime anchor Joy Reid's show in what is evidently a major programming restructure at the liberal network.Speaking to the New York Times, two people familiar with the reshuffling told the outlet that Reid's 7pm show, The ReidOut, is being cancelled as part of a lineup shuffle being helmed by the network's new president, Rebecca Kutler. Continue reading...

A doctor, a nurse and a custodian at UPMC Memorial, and two other officers were shot and wounded in attackA man armed with a pistol and carrying zip ties entered a Pennsylvania hospital's intensive care unit Saturday and took staff members hostage before he was killed by police in a shootout that also left an officer dead, authorities said.Three workers at UPMC Memorial hospital, including a doctor, a nurse and a custodian, and two other officers were shot and wounded in the attack, York county district attorney Tim Barker said. A fourth staffer was injured in a fall.Guardian staff contributed reporting Continue reading...

John Feeley launches stinging critique of US president's bully-boy approach to Latin AmericaThe former US ambassador to Panama has launched a stinging critique of Donald Trump's approach towards Latin America, comparing his conduct to that of the ruthless and egotistical fictional mob boss Tony Soprano.In the first month of his presidency, the US president has shocked some observers with his aggressive focus on a region many expected him to largely ignore. Early steps have included threatening to take back" the Panama Canal, accusing Mexico's government of being in cahoots with narco-traffickers, sending an envoy to meet the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolas Maduro, and clashing with Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, over deportation flights. Continue reading...

Scrim the tramp terrier, known for his many getaways, now has a home and an extended family to look over himCalling King Solomon.The wiry terrier named Scrim who had virtually all of New Orleans looking for him while he spent most of the previous year on the run - enduring a hurricane, a historic snowfall and other perils - landed in the middle of an adoption controversy among those who recently brought him to heel again and then wanted to keep him. Continue reading...

Emboldened and exultant, speakers put less emphasis on baiting liberals and more on spreading the Maga gospelWhat do you give the man who has everything? A ballroom full of cheering conservative activists found out this week when Elon Musk was presented with a chainsaw by Argentina's president, Javier Milei, who has used the power tool as a symbol of his push to impose fiscal discipline.Wearing sunglasses, a black Maga baseball cap and a gold necklace, Musk giddily wielded the chainsaw up and down the stage. This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy!" he declared. Members of the audience shouted: We love you!" Musk replied: I love you guys, too!" And he quipped: I am become meme." Continue reading...

For the US president's cheerleaders, the whitewashing of the deaths of ten of thousands of Ukrainians is a small price to pay for sticking it to the wokeratiWas it really only a month ago that the pole-dancer patron, fridge explorer, Brexit get-doer, model bus maker, sofa-strainer, wall-spaffer, current Daily Mail columnist and former British prime minister Boris Johnson eulogised the inauguration of Donald Trump in the Mail, recounting how, as the invisible pulse of power surged" from the battered bible into the hand of Trump: I saw the moment the world's wokerati had worked so hard to prevent."I hope Johnson is pleased with the way things have worked out. Because now the foolish wokerati have been schooled beyond Johnson's wettest dreams. It's the Trump-Putin-bin Salman party! An adjudicated sex offender and convicted fraudster, and a man who sanctioned a chemical warfare hit, killing a British citizen on British soil, have met at the luxury Saudia Arabian hotel of another man, who, according to the US, reportedly approved the murder and subsequent dismemberment of a journalist, to discuss the similarly brutal dismemberment of Ukraine, without consulting either Ukraine itself or the countries most directly affected by the legitimisation of Putin's territorial anxieties. Don't worry, Poland! Stable genius Trump has got this covered, so break out the bone saws, pop the cork on the novichok and grab the girls by the pussy! There are 1970s Italian slasher films with less gruesome plotlines. Well said, Boris Johnson! That's certainly stuck it to the wokerati!Stewart Lee tours Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf this year, with a Royal Festival Hall run in July. He appears in a benefit show for Just Stop Oil at Walthamstow Trades Hall, London, on 8 April Continue reading...

As the US upends decades of foreign policy, those watching the war unfold from miles away resolve to stand strongMembers of New York's large Ukrainian community expressed a mix of disillusionment, betrayal, defiance and acute uncertainty about what the future holds for Ukraine after tensions escalated this week between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Geopolitical events in the last week have shocked Ukrainians at home and overseas as well as US lawmakers and allies, as the US president appeared to heavily favor the Russian president Vladimir Putin to dictate peace terms on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...

This weekend's vote will show how far xenophobia has been driving even some traditionally progressive partiesWhen I think of German democracy, I think of the Larsen B ice shelf: a vast Antarctic structure that remained stable for 10,000 years until - in just over a month, to the horror of shocked onlookers - it collapsed catastrophically.This weekend, Germany is going to the polls. The coalition led by the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD), born in hope, has fallen apart, thanks in no small measure to the continual attempts at sabotage by the Free Democratic party (FDP), its most junior member. That last successful effort resulted in the dissolution of the government. Continue reading...

Regardless of anxiety by most parents about over-sharing, the president's aide brought one of his children to the White HouseIf the reversal of declining birthrates is genuinely a preoccupation of Elon Musk's, recent reviews suggest that the exhibition of his four-year-old son, X", may not be the most effective fertility stimulus.That there is more chance of the exact opposite, a global stampede for contraceptives, remains likely even if X can be persuaded not to pick his nose and, as the world witnessed last week, idly consume its contents beside the US president's Resolute desk. I say idly". Donald Trump, in attendance, introduced X as a high IQ individual". Behind his show of mucoid innocence, the prodigy may have been reflecting, with wry amusement at the double standards, that no woman in his father's role would get away with bringing a docile child to a presidential press conference, still less one as irksome as himself.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

The stakes couldn't be higher and the risks couldn't be greater when the prime minister visits Washington this weekFor British prime ministers, with their ideas about the world shaped by the histories of Churchill and Roosevelt, Maggie and Ronnie, and the rest of the folklore about the transatlantic alliance, the prospect of a visit to the White House usually causes tingles of excitement. One of our senior diplomats once offered me an explanation of the allure: The red carpet is laid out, the national anthems are played, all that stuff is very seductive." This will be customarily accompanied by ritualistic words about the importance and invincibility of the special relationship".Number 10 lobbied hard to get Sir Keir Starmer across the Atlantic early in the second term of Donald Trump and, until recently, Downing Street people were telling themselves that an encounter between the two men needn't be a disaster and might even turn out to be a success. In the weeks since Trump's re-election as US president, UK policy might be summarised by the phrase Don't poke the beast". Keep the temperature cool. Ignore provocations. Attempt to trade on British heritage - golf, the royal family - with which this US president has an affinity. Put David Lammy out there to suggest that there is lots to respect about the man whom the foreign secretary used to call a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath". Softly-softly was the doctrine and they thought it was bearing fruit. Continue reading...

The UK leader has been advised to choose his words carefully at this week's crucial White House meeting Keir Starmer lays down Ukraine peace demand ahead of Trump talksWhen Keir Starmer is advised on how to handle his crucial meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, he will be told by advisers from Downing Street and the Foreign Office to be very clear on his main points and, above all, to be brief.Trump gets bored very easily," said one well-placed Whitehall source with knowledge of the president's attention span. When he loses interest and thinks someone is being boring, he just tunes out. He doesn't like [the French president, Emmanuel] Macron partly because Macron talks too much and tries to lecture him." Continue reading...

Accepting the presidential nomination, the Arizona senator tells the Republican National Convention that Americans have been betrayedWe want Barry! We want Barry!' cheered the crowd as Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater entered the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco. The band blared the crusaders' song of American politics, Glory Glory Hallelujah', writes Theodore H White in the Observer Magazine on 20 September 1964, with Goldwater's 89-year-old mother on the cover.In his speech accepting the presidential nomination, the far-right Arizona senator, with his deep tan and silvery white hair', aroused both fervour and fear... Then he swung into his theme: The Good Lord raised this mighty republic, not to stagnate in the swamplands of collectivism, not to cringe before the bully of Communism."' Continue reading...

Contemptuous and sure of himself, the US president boasted of his victories and taunted his enemiesGod save the king. Drunk on power, Donald Trump spent Saturday afternoon before adoring fans, boasting of his victories, taunting his enemies and casting himself as America's absolute monarch, supreme leader and divine emperor rolled into one.Trump's appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Maryland began with country singer Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA and raucous cheers in a crowded ballroom that included January 6 insurrectionists. Continue reading...

Ex-leader of far-right Proud Boys trails group through lobby of Washington hotel, engaging officer Michael FanoneEnrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group who was convicted and then pardoned for his role in the January 6 insurrection, confronted a group of police officers who defended the Capitol during the attack, accusing one of them of being a coward".A video shared by Tarrio on social media on Saturday showed him following the officers, Michael Fanone, Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell, through the lobby of a Washington hotel that was hosting the Principles First summit, a conference where one of the officers received a profile in courage" award. Continue reading...

US president's 75-minute tirade of repeated false claims ranges from voter fraud and stolen-election lies to foreign wars. This blog is now closed.Donald Trump launched into his speech by assailing the fraudsters, liars ... globalists and deep-state bureaucrats" that he said are being sent back".We're draining the swamp and restoring government by the people for the people," he said before going on to his oft-repeated claims of Washington DC being controlled by a sinister group of radical-left Marxist warmongers". Continue reading...

US president hits familiar notes about election victories, ending the war in Ukraine and border militarizationIn a campaign-style performance, Donald Trump delivered the more-than-hour-long finale at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, hitting familiar notes about his election victories, ending the war in Ukraine, US border militarization and what he characterized as the liberation of Washington from deep-state bureaucrats".Speaking to an auditorium filled to the brim at National Harbor in Maryland, Trump went all-in on his deployment of active-duty troops to the southern border, which he characterized as responding to an invasion". He also boasted that his administration had terminated temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants and attempted to ban birthright citizenship for children of non-legal permanent residents. Continue reading...

Andrew Duarte of West York borough police department was slain Saturday at UPMC memorial hospital in YorkA police officer was killed Saturday after responding to a shooting at a central Pennsylvania hospital, officials said.The officer slain in the shooting at UPMC memorial hospital in York was identified as Andrew Duarte of the West York borough police department. He had been responding to a mutual aid call, the department posted on its Facebook page.Guardian staff contributed reporting Continue reading...

When contraception has stagnated for decades, it is hardly surprising it's fallen victim to culture wars and a wellness cultSomething is changing when it comes to contraception. Lots of people aren't using it. Last week we heard that this includes a third of young Irish people. Meanwhile, there has been a significant rise in abortions in England and Wales. Prescriptions for the contraceptive pill in England dropped from 432,600 in 2014 to 188,500 in 2021. And this month data from abortion clinics found that demand is being fuelled by women coming off the pill and using natural methods instead.When the study compared contraception used by women seeking abortions in 2018 and in 2023, it found that the proportion using smartphones to track their menstrual cycle had increased from 0.4% to 2.5%. The use of hormonal contraception among this group fell from 19% to 11%, while the group not using any form of contraception when they became pregnant increased from 50% to 70%. Continue reading...