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More than 200 events in 46 states protest supreme court decision that struck down the federal right to an abortion in USIt’s 4.30pm in Washington DC. We’re closing this blog now, but you can read the Guardian’s story on the women’s march and reproductive rights issue today, here.Here’s where things stand:Although smaller compared to previous years, this year’s Women’s March still saw thousands take to the streets. Many showed up with creative signs in passionate protest for reproductive freedoms.Rachel O’Leary Carmona, the executive director of the Women’s March, addressed crowds in Madison, Wisconsin, which has been chosen by march organizers as this year’s rallying base. “We will not be distracted by the drama in DC. Instead we are sending a clear message to elected leaders and to our base – we are going to where the fight is, and that is at the state level,” organizers said.President Joe Biden urged Congress on Sunday to pass legislation that codifies reproductive rights offered by Roe. “Let me be clear: a woman’s right to choose is non-negotiable. I haven’t stopped fighting to protect women’s reproductive rights – and I never will. Now, it’s time for Congress to pass legislation codifying the protections of Roe,” he said.In Washington DC, organizers from the Black-led abolitionist group Harriet’s Wildest Dreams drowned out the sound of counter-protesters, chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, these racist bitches have got to go.” Speaking to the Guardian, 18-year old protestor Raven Hidalgo said, “It’s unfair men are taking away our rights over our own bodies.”In her address at Tallahassee, Florida, vice-president Kamala Harris reaffirmed the fight for reproductive rights across the country and announced a presidential memorandum issued by Biden. “Today, we are fighting back. I am pleased to announce that President Biden has issued a presidential memorandum. Members of our cabinet and our administration are now directed to identify barriers to access and recommend actions to make sure that doctors can legally prescribe, doctors can dispense and women can secure safe and effective medication,” she said.A small counter-protest of less than a dozen people stood outside Freedom Plaza steps in DC at noon today, chanting racist and sexist chants about slavery as thousands descended upon DC to march on the 50th anniversary of Roe being signed into law, half a year after the constitutional right was dismantled. Jessica Nowell, 19, from the anti-abortion group Students For Life, told the Guardian that she was upset by the counter-protest which she did not believe reflected the movement. “I don’t believe with the pro-choicers but this behavior is disgusting and it’s not the gospel. God loves us all,” she said. Continue reading...

Protesters mark 50 years since landmark decision that protected abortion rights nationwideThousands of protesters gathered across the United States to protest the end of the federal right to abortion – marching on the the 50th anniversary of the Roe v Wade supreme court decision that made abortion a constitutional right in 1973, but which was struck down last year.At more than 200 Women’s March events in 46 states, demonstrators condemned the court’s decision, which leaves it up to individual states to decide whether to protect, ban or restrict abortion rights. Since last year’s startling decision from the conservative-dominated bench, abortion has been banned or severely restricted in 14 states, after the ruling on 24 June. Continue reading...

Zients had worked at the White House before as the top official for coordinating the US response to the Covid-19 pandemicJoe Biden will name as his new chief of staff Jeff Zients, a former top official for coordinating the US response to the coronavirus pandemic, after it had emerged on Saturday that the US president’s current chief, Ron Klain, plans to step down, according to US media reports.Zients departed his pandemic-related White House role last April, but had been back since fall, assisting Klain ahead of and after November’s midterm elections, and will now take over the top job, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. Continue reading...

Former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein questions authenticity of infamous 2001 photograph during interview from Florida prisonGhislaine Maxwell has questioned the authenticity of a photograph that came to symbolise Virginia Giuffre’s sexual abuse allegations against Prince Andrew, amid reports the Duke of York is considering overturning his settlement.In a video interview from prison, Maxwell who appears in the infamous 2001 photograph alongside the then 17-year-old Giuffre as Andrew holds her semi-bare waist, said: “I don’t believe it’s real for a second.” Continue reading...

New search turns up six more items from tenures as vice-president and in the SenateA new search of President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware by the US justice department found six more items, including documents with classification markings, a lawyer for the president said in a statement Saturday night.Some of the classified documents and “surrounding materials” dated from Biden’s tenure in the Senate, where he represented Delaware from 1973 to 2009, according to his lawyer, Bob Bauer. Other documents were from his tenure as vice-president in the Obama administration, from 2009 through 2017, Bauer said. Continue reading...

At least 10 people have died in a shooting in Monterey Park. The incident happened after lunar new year celebrations that attracted thousands in the city, which is home to a large Asian population and is about 10 miles (16km) from downtown Los Angeles. Rescuers rushed those injured in the shooting to nearby hospitals as police closed off the area. Authorities have not stated a motive for the shooting as they continue to search for the suspected gunman

Work-life balance is a critical benefit, and offering it can be a powerful recruiting tool and unexpected cost saverLast week Microsoft Corporation joined a growing number of companies around the country by announcing that it was now offering an unlimited paid time off (PTO) plan to its employees.“How, when, and where we do our jobs has dramatically changed,” a company HR executive explained in a memo. “And as we’ve transformed, modernizing our vacation policy to a more flexible model was a natural next step.” Continue reading...

Until last year, Roe made it more possible for women’s lives to be determined by their choices, not merely by their bodiesIf the supreme court hadn’t overturned it last June, undoing a longstanding precedent and inflicting untold harm to women’s well-being and dignity, Sunday 22 January would have been the fiftieth anniversary of Roe v Wade.Over those 50 years, Roe changed American life dramatically. Abortion became a routine part of life, a resource people planned their lives around having. In contrast to its political controversy, abortion in the Roe era was – as it is now – aggressively common. Approximately one in four American women will have an abortion at some point in the course of their reproductive lives.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

A town in the oil industry’s shadow grapples with health fears as the state fails to limit companies’ use of fresh waterTowering refineries and rusty pumpjacks greet visitors driving along the highways of Kern county, California. Oil wells sit in the middle of fields of grapevines and almond trees. The air is heavy with dust and the scent of petroleum.The energy fields here are some of the most productive in the US, generating billions of barrels of oil annually and more than two-thirds of the state’s natural gas. And in a drought-stricken state, they’re also some of the thirstiest, consuming vast quantities of fresh water to extract stubborn oil. Continue reading...

Biden’s immigration promises fall short as some of Trump’s policies remain in place – here’s what’s similar and what’s differentUnder Donald Trump, Americans were confronted with a near-constant onslaught of racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy, especially regarding the US-Mexico border, as the same man who led chants about building a wall there won the 2016 presidential election and took control of the Oval Office for the next four years.Vulnerable migrants were mounting “an invasion”, Trump said. The United States’ asylum system – a key commitment to its humanitarian values – was “ridiculous” and “insane”. Immigrants of color made headlines for supposedly coming here from “shithole” countries, and Mexican immigrants were called drug dealers, criminals and rapists. Continue reading...

As the US adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year – probably accelerated by CovidChurches are closing at rapid numbers in the US, researchers say, as congregations dwindle across the country and a younger generation of Americans abandon Christianity altogether – even as faith continues to dominate American politics.As the US adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year in the country – a figure that experts believe may have accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...

Five leaders of the far-right group on trial for their role in the January 6 attack have tried to turn attention to the ex-presidentWhile federal prosecutors are casting the Capitol insurrection trial of five far-right Proud Boys leaders as an attempt to bring participants of an attack on US democracy to account, the members of the group are using the proceedings to ask one question even some of their opponents on the political left agree is valid.Why have prosecutors so far only focused their energy on the supporters of Donald Trump who are accused of a coordinated invasion of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the congressional certification of his defeat to Joe Biden in the previous year’s presidential election? Is it because they regard the former Republican president himself – who urged his supporters to “fight like hell” that deadly day – as too formidable and them as easier targets? Continue reading...

As Russia threatens another offensive, this is the moment of maximum danger. Ukraine’s allies must move fast and decisively Continue reading...

‘Nobody even knows who this guy is,’ critics say, but he was still awarded with House panel assignments – showing the party ‘stands for nothing’“He didn’t just steal from a service dog. He didn’t just steal from a dying service dog. He stole from a disabled homeless veteran’s dying service dog. Oh my God. You evil and stupid!”That was how Leslie Jones, guest host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, summed up just one of this week’s revelations about George Santos, a US congressman whose shameless fabulism has stunned Washington, a capital that thought it had smelt every flavour of mendacity from politicians. Continue reading...

Governor proposes legislation to ban mask requirements and outlaw ‘discrimination based on vaccine status’Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has announced a proposal to permanently ban Covid mandates in the state.In a press release issued earlier this week, DeSantis said that he has proposed legislation to “make permanent Covid freedoms in Florida”, adding that the “strong pro-freedom, anti-mandate action will permanently protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to Covid vaccine mandates, protects parents’ rights, and institutes additional protections that prevent discrimination based on Covid vaccine status”. Continue reading...

New York Times reports Klain to announce departure in coming weeks, following two grueling years since president took officeRon Klain, Joe Biden’s chief of staff, is reportedly set to step down from his position, in what will be the biggest change to the US president’s inner circle of advisors since he took office two years ago.Klain will announce his departure in the coming weeks, according to the New York Times, after telling colleagues that he is ready to move on following a grueling period of successes and frustrations that stretch back to Biden’s successful 2020 election campaign. Continue reading...

People who live alone spend almost twice as much per person as those in couples, research has revealedSome claim that the first day in the third week of January is the most depressing one in the calendar. This year, Blue Monday arrived with added cruelty – for those of us who happen to be single, at least. A financial services firm chose just that miserable moment to reveal how much more expensive it is to live on your own than in a couple.If you’re currently alone, and the post-holiday slump already has you feeling down about it, you may want to look away now. According to the brokers Hargreaves Lansdown, the cost of living premium for being single comes in at an average £860 a month, factoring in typical expenses from rent and energy bills to groceries, wifi and TV subscriptions. Continue reading...

The reality show in which mothers and sons live together and start flirting is weirdly kinky but also oddly naturalIf you’re a woman of a certain age, struggling in the housing crisis, you could always check into Milf Manor. It’s a new US reality show in which women and their sons live in a house together and then all the ladies and all the guys flirt with each other (Milf stands for Mum I’d Love to Fuck, in case you didn’t know). In the search for a new hit, Milf Manor’s producers have gone back to the oldest human drive on the planet, the mother of them all: the original dyad between a baby and their primary caregiver. Maternal love, filial love, carnal love and erotic love blend together in a mutually jealous, weirdly kinky, televised Freudian melange. It’s natural, it’s normal, it’s common, it’s fine! After all, Sophocles wrote Oedipus Rex 400 years before the birth of Christ. Once you pass 40, you become invisible to men in their 30s while every 20-year-old on the planet notices you, including waiters, security guards, interns and other women’s sons. I can explain it in one word: perimenopause. When wise Mother Nature realises your ship is sailing, she starts wafting out your erotic pheromones at double strength like novelty cocktails during happy hour at the last-chance saloon and you attract those virile young males who are biologically best able to “pollinate the flower”. Milf Manor is airing on the cable network TLC, which also happens to stand for Tender Loving Care. As the guys queueing to visit Milf Manor know, that’s exactly what you get when you come to Mummy. Continue reading...

There’s a real problem when the same people cling to power for decades and refuse to make room for new bloodIt was inevitable that someone was going to ask that most cliched of questions and, voilà, they did. Shortly after Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation as New Zealand prime minister this week, the BBC tweeted out a story about Ardern balancing motherhood with politics, with a headline asking if women can really have it all. After being accused of “staggering sexism”, the BBC deleted the headline and apologised. Continue reading...

Asked by a reporter if he supported Poland's call to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, the US president told a reporter: 'Ukraine is going to get all the help they need'. An adviser to the Ukrainian president has since said slow decision-making over whether to send the tanks to the country is costing lives. Baltic countries including Latvia have told Germany to send the tanks 'now' after perceived heel-dragging by Berlin

The refugee camps are riddled with disease, poverty and violence. The French create the terror and squalor – and UK ministers pay them to do it

His ‘campaign event’ this week was a dud, his legal woes are growing and his cronies are viciously infightingOnce again, the legal pitfalls and enthusiasm deficit that plague Donald Trump’s bid for the 2024 Republican nomination are on display. On Thursday, a federal judge imposed $938,000 in sanctions on Trump and his lawyers. Meanwhile, an appearance touted by Trump as a major campaign event was nothing more than a closed-door speech to deep-pocketed election-deniers at a Trump property.For those looking for uplift from a Trump campaign, those days are over. Rather, personal grievance and claims of a stolen 2020 election will likely be his dominant themes. For the 45th president, that may bring catharsis. For everyone else in the Republican party, that spells chaos, headache and the possibility of another Trump defeat at the hands of Joe Biden and the Democrats. Continue reading...

As the wall of shipping crates built through a national forest is removed, environmentalists take stockTruck horns blasted and red dust billowed beneath the blue Arizona sky as surplus army trucks sped up and down a road along the US-Mexico border, hauling shipping containers out of the Coronado national forest.Piles of dirt and oak trees, bulldozed by construction crews, dotted the grassland of the San Rafael valley, south-east of Tucson, known as a vital wildlife corridor. Continue reading...

An ‘avalanche’ of candidates, including Katie Porter, Barbara Lee and Adam Schiff, announce candidacy for California seatDianne Feinstein, the 89-year-old who served as California senator for three decades, has yet to announce her retirement. But the contest to succeed her in two years is already shaping into a bitter battle.After months of shadow campaigning and whispered political leveraging, earlier this month, Katie Porter – the whiteboard-wielding progressive congresswoman – became the first to officially declare her candidacy. Barbara Lee, the old-school leftist with an ardent antiwar record, has reportedly told colleagues she is running. Adam Schiff, icon of the anti-Trump liberal resistance, has reportedly begun prepping for a run. Silicon valley congressman Ro Khanna is expected to jump in as well. Continue reading...

Democrat Kris Mayes will repurpose unit created by Republican predecessor to focus on protecting voting accessA unit created under the former Republican attorney general of Arizona to investigate claims of election fraud will now focus on voting rights and ballot access under the newly elected Democratic attorney general.The Democratic attorney general, Kris Mayes, told the Guardian that instead of prosecuting claims of voter fraud, she will “reprioritize the mission and resources” of the unit to focus on “protecting voting access and combating voter suppression”. Mayes won the attorney general’s race in November against election denier Abe Hamadah by just 280 votes, a race that went to a state-mandated recount. Continue reading...

Report revealed multiple executions in recent years carried out without proper testing of lethal injection drugsTwo top Tennessee officials have been fired by the corrections department after an independent report revealed striking errors in the state’s lethal injection execution protocol.According to official documents reviewed by the Tennessean newspaper, the deputy commissioner and general counsel, Debra Inglis, was fired, as well as inspector general Kelly Young, on 27 December. Continue reading...

The long road to rebuilding is just beginning in the rain-pummeled state as assessments reveal damage worth millionsMud oozed and swirled under the wheels of Darren Sauter’s tractor. The slick remnants of the state’s epic, weeks-long rainstorms left neighborhoods like this one in Felton, California, inundated even after the waters receded. Days after the downpours, Sauter and others were working to rid homes and streets of the dirty muck, piled 3ft high in places.“People have had to just live with this,” said Sauter, speaking over the hum of his equipment as he worked on Wednesday afternoon. Sauter came down from Ben Lomon, a town just north of this quiet neighborhood in the Santa Cruz mountains, to help volunteer with the daunting cleanup. Riding a bright orange front loader, he shoveled mud to the side to create a pathway through the wet earth, still laden with chemical contaminants from the roadway and the smell of sewage, as solemn-faced residents looked on. “You can’t even walk through it.” Continue reading...

Dieunerst Collin, who became internet famous as a child for video of him at fast-food chain, signs advertising deal with companyA decade has passed, but at last the star of the internet meme showing a boy glancing sideways in confusion with a cup in his hand while standing in line at a Popeyes is capitalizing on his viral fame.Dieunerst Collin, an 18-year-old player for the football team at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, can finally cash in on his online fame thanks to a change in policy from an organization which governs collegiate sports in the US that in 2021 enabled student athletes to earn money from sponsorship opportunities. Continue reading...

The top-seeded Eagles are touchdown favorites on Saturday against a Giants team they defeated twice during the regular season. So why is Philadelphia expecting the worst?Not long after the Philadelphia Eagles were installed as seven-and-a-half-point favorites over the New York Giants for their NFC divisional playoff game on Saturday night, skepticism began seeping through this passionate-yet-gloomy sports town – as it always does.Seven-and-a-half points, great. But, wait. Can we beat the Giants three times this year? Continue reading...

The craze is little more than a rehash of new age manifestation, but January’s bleakness made me desperate enough to give it a goSomething strange happened to me last year. On five or six occasions, I needed the money for something – a plane ticket to see someone I love, a daunting credit card bill, a vital item that needed replacing – and I’d think, “If only I could afford this, everything would work out.” Then, within a day or two, I’d be offered a piece of work that would pay that exact amount to the pound, or I’d be able to travel with work to exactly the place I wanted to go. It was a lucky and auspicious 12 months.Fast forward to this cold, hard January, and nothing is unbearably bad, but I wouldn’t quite say anything is going especially “well” either. Living and working alone, when your major social interaction of the day is bitching about your problems with the nicest man at the coffee shop who always gives you extra stamps on your loyalty card, disappointments can begin to cut rather than scratch.Hannah Ewens is features editor at Vice UK and author of Fangirls: Scenes From Modern Music CultureDo 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...

Potential presidential contenders walk tightrope in demonstrating hardline credentials without alienating moderatesThey came in their thousands, wearing hats, waving flags and exulting in the death of American women’s constitutional right to abortion. But some who marched in Washington on Friday were also thinking ahead: who will be their next champion in the White House?“If it wasn’t for President Trump, we wouldn’t have a post-Roe America,” said Patricia Stephanoff, 66, from Michigan, wearing a pink “Trump 2024” hat. “He’s the most pro-life president we’ve ever had. He’s the only president who has ever come to the march.” Continue reading...

Corruption and unsolved deaths form a gothic backdrop as lawyer Alex Murdaugh stands trial for murder of wife and sonDisgraced former attorney Alex Murdaugh faces trial next week on charges of murdering his wife and son, part of a sprawling case that has exposed a seamy underside to political power and influence in South Carolina’s lowlands.It is a bizarre and southern Gothic tale of brutal murders, still unsolved deaths, an apparently faked assassination attempt, a family fortune and layers of small town corruption going back generations. Not surprisingly, it has gripped America and attracted the interest of numerous documentary makers. Continue reading...

Bills in at least eight states seek to restrict drag performances as part of a broader rightwing backlash against LGBTQ+ rightsAcross the United States Republican politicians are seeking to bring in new laws that crack down on drag shows as part of a broader backlash against LGTBQ+ rights sweeping through rightwing parts of America.Legislators in at least eight states have introduced legislation aiming to restrict or censor the shows, according to a new report from a leading freedom of speech group. A total of 14 bills have been introduced across Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Continue reading...

Search for 65-year-old, who went missing while hiking in Mt Baldy, California, being conducted by air due to hazardous weatherThe search for British actor Julian Sands continues nearly a week after he was reported missing while hiking in a treacherous area of California’s San Gabriel Mountains, where at least two other hikers have already perished this winter.The search for the 65-year-old actor is currently being conducted “via helicopter only”, the San Bernardino county sheriff’s department said Friday afternoon, because the risk of avalanches around Mt Baldy has continued to make on-the-ground rescue efforts too dangerous. Continue reading...

Anti-abortion activists descend on Washington for annual march and commit to continue fighting to limit reproductive rightsThousands of abortion opponents descended on Washington DC for the annual March for Life on Friday, the first time since achieving its foundational objective: persuading the supreme court to overturn Roe v Wade.Every year since the landmark 1973 decision, anti-abortion activists have come to the nation’s capital to march, plead and pray for a post-Roe America where abortion wasn’t just banned but was “unthinkable”. Continue reading...

Ad-hoc tribunal of legal experts and supporters pressures US administration to drop ‘attack on press freedom’Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for demanding the release of journalists detained around the world while the US president continues seeking the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain to face American espionage charges.The campaign to pressure the Biden administration to drop the charges moved to Washington DC on Friday with a hearing of the Belmarsh Tribunal, an ad hoc gathering of legal experts and supporters named after the London prison where Assange is being detained. Continue reading...

23-year-old died after Colorado police put him in a chokehold and injected him with a large dose of the powerful sedative ketamineA group of police officers and paramedics are scheduled on Friday to enter pleas in Colorado court to charges in the death of Elijah McClain, a Black man who was put in a chokehold and injected with a powerful sedative two years ago in suburban Denver.They were indicted by a state grand jury on manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other charges in 2021. Continue reading...

US will apply designation in the coming days, says national security council spokesman, imposing new sanctions on the groupThe US will designate the Russian mercenary group Wagner as a “significant transnational criminal organization”, imposing further sanctions on the military contractor which has been aiding Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine.The White House national security council spokesman, John Kirby, announced on Friday that the treasury will apply the new designation in the coming days, putting it in the same category as Italian mafia groups and Japanese and Russian organized crime. Continue reading...

Men were taken into custody on Wednesday, bringing the number of US military members charged in connection to insurrection to 12Three active-service US marines, all with ties to intelligence work, were arrested this week for taking part in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, according to federal documents newly unsealed.The men, all long-serving, were taken into custody on Wednesday on four charges, bringing to 12 the number of US military members charged in connection with the deadly insurrection by supporters of outgoing president Donald Trump as they tried to prevent the certification by Congress of his defeat by Joe Biden. The news was first reported by military.com. Continue reading...

Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told reporters at the US Ramstein Air Base that he did not believe it was realistic to expect Ukraine to push Russian troops out of its internationally recognised territory. 'From a military standpoint, I still maintain that from this year it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject Russian forces from every inch of Russian-occupied Ukraine,' he said, adding the caveat that he didn't believe it was impossible

Larry Ray convicted in April of sex trafficking and racketeering stemming from abuse of young women at Sarah Lawrence CollegeThis article contains descriptions of abuse.A financial fraudster who lured students at an elite New York liberal arts college into a cult-like world of sexual, physical and emotional abuse was sentenced on Friday to 60 years in federal prison.In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit the Men’s Advice Line or Women’s Aid. In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...