With US abortion rights in jeopardy, Judy Chicago, Bonnie Greer, Rebecca Solnit and more explain why they are determined to fight backThe US was shaken earlier this week by the news that Roe v Wade – the ruling that gives American women the constitutionally protected right to safe and legal abortion – could be overturned.If the leaked ruling by the supreme court does come into effect abortion would be a matter for individual state legislatures and Congress to rule upon. The change would mean women and girls no longer having the same rights their mothers and grandmothers fought for if Republican-controlled states move quickly to end abortion access and Republicans in Congress attempt to enact a nationwide abortion ban. Continue reading...

In a state where labor culture isn’t strong, a Denver store’s union drive is notable. As soon as it was announced, high-ranking company figures began visitingWhen Starbucks management came for Sean Andrews, it didn’t surprise him, exactly. Tensions were already running high in the Denver coffee shop where he worked. A few days prior, Andrews’ fellow baristas had walked off the job in a six-hour strike. They were demonstrating for their unionization effort and against what they saw as a sustained pattern of anti-labor tactics by Starbucks.Workers knew the strike was an escalation and expected retaliation. Even so, Andrews was unprepared when the Denver Starbucks district manager pulled him aside before a shift, forced him to turn off his phone and asked him to take a call. The woman on the other end would eventually identify herself as a “corporate investigator” who looks into losses in stores. Continue reading...

Lawyers for Frank Atwood urge him not to choose as method of execution poison gas used to murder millions during HolocaustA death row inmate in Arizona has two weeks to decide whether to be executed with cyanide gas, the poison known as Zyklon B used by the Nazis to murder millions of people in Auschwitz and other extermination camps.On Tuesday the supreme court of Arizona issued an execution warrant for Frank Atwood that, barring last-minute appeals, will see him put to death on 8 June. The prisoner now has until 19 May to choose his preferred method of death – either lethal injection or hydrogen cyanide, a poisonous gas made notorious by the Nazis as a mass killing technique during the Holocaust. Continue reading...

A reckoning with what the 14th amendment enshrines could affect consensual sex and even marriage rightsFollowing the bombshell release of a draft decision showing a majority of US supreme court justices may overturn Roe v Wade, legal experts believe other laws about individual autonomy may be in danger, including the right to access contraception.Laws broadly banning abortion may also prohibit certain forms of birth control that opponents incorrectly say are working as abortion-causing medications. And the supreme court decision underpinning the right to access contraception, Griswold v Connecticut, could also come under fire in much the same way as Roe did. Continue reading...

If the draft supreme court decision is not substantially altered it would result in 26 states banning the procedureAn unprecedented leak of a draft supreme court decision shows a majority of justices support ending federal protections for abortions in arguably the most controversial court case in generations.While the draft could still change, if it is not substantially altered it would result in 26 states immediately or as soon as practicable banning abortion, a sea change in the American legal and political landscape. Continue reading...

The music critic began reporting on the star’s abuse of Black women and girls back in 2000 – and he kept going for 20 years. Why were his revelations ignored for so long?It all began with the bodyguards, and the balled-up pieces of paper. So many pieces of balled-up paper. The bodyguards pressed them into the hands of teenage athletes and aspiring singers and girls on their way home from prom. They kept slipping them into warm, young hands even after their boss, the R&B artist R Kelly, had been indicted for producing child abuse images in 2002, and acquitted in 2008.On the paper was R Kelly’s phone number. The underage teenage girls would contact Kelly in the hope he would help them in their careers, or because they liked his music, or even just out of youthful curiosity: would he text back? None had any clue of the horror that would unfold. Kelly raped and sexually abused dozens of them. He forced them to live according to degrading restrictions, inflicted physical violence upon them, and even, if reports are to be believed, forced them to eat faeces if they displeased him. Continue reading...

Governor Gavin Newsom said an amendment is being proposed that would ‘enshrine the right to choose’ in the state’s constitutionWith reproductive rights in peril across the US and a draft supreme court ruling that would overturn Roe v Wade, California is working to further enshrine abortion rights and expand access in anticipation of a surge of people seeking care from out of state.California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has long pledged that the state would become a “sanctuary” for people seeking reproductive care if the supreme court were to overturn the 1973 case that guaranteed the right to abortion. After a draft ruling leaked showing the court may have decided to do just that, Newsom said he and state leaders were proposing an amendment that would “enshrine the right to choose” in California’s constitution. State lawmakers are currently considering recommendations from a council tasked to finding solutions in case Roe is overturned. Continue reading...

As news broke of the possibility of Roe v Wade being overturned, demonstrators gathered in major citiesOutside the US supreme court the morning after a bombshell leak revealed justices are poised to overturn Roe v Wade, the day began with dozens of protesters. By the afternoon, thousands had arrived to make their voices heard – with many on opposite sides of America’s abortion debate.The possibility of a repeal of the landmark 1973 decision brought energized and sometimes emotional supporters of Roe to protests in major cities from New York to San Francisco. But the supreme court was ground zero. Continue reading...

He faces off Democrat Tim Ryan in the crucial midterm election as Republicans push to take control of US Senate in NovemberAuthor JD Vance won the Senate Republican primary in Ohio on Tuesday, securing a victory after receiving Donald Trump’s endorsement in the hotly contested race.Vance was leading the crowded pack of primary candidates with 32% of the vote when the Associated Press called the race, about two hours after polls closed. Former state treasurer Josh Mandel looked likely to finish second, and state Senator Matt Dolan, who saw a last-minute surge in support, rounded out the top three. Continue reading...

The activist, who has performed similar stunts in the past, was arrested at the top of the Salesforce tower Tuesday afternoonA man was arrested in San Francisco on Tuesday after free-climbing the Salesforce tower, in a stunt apparently indented as a protest against abortion.The man, who calls himself the “pro-life Spiderman”, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday afternoon. The city’s fire department confirmed the incident on Twitter and encouraged the public to “join us in condemning this action”. Continue reading...

'I am angry, upset and determined,' said Massachusetts Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren in Washington, after joining a protest at the supreme court on Tuesday following the release of the draft opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade. The previous presidential hopeful said: 'The United States Congress can keep Roe v Wade the law of the land, they just need to do it,' referring to the Women’s Health Protection Act, which fell down in the Senate in March because of lack of Republican support and one Democrat opposing.

President says production of Javelin anti-tank missiles in Alabama critical to war effort, as he urges Congress to approve $33bn in aidJoe Biden on Tuesday told assembly-line workers at an Alabama factory that the weapons they are crafting are going into “the hands of Ukrainian heroes” on the front lines of the effort to repel Russian forces.The US president praised the employees of the Lockheed Martin plant that manufactures Javelin anti-tank missiles, saying their work was critical to the Ukrainian war effort and to the defense of democracy itself. Continue reading...

Biden condemns abortion opinion that, if handed down, would mean ‘fundamental shift’ in law and imperil many other rights

Given the US state department’s reclassification of the basketball star as ‘wrongfully detained’ – the moment to speak out is nowBrittney Griner dropped her impassive game face, looked at me with big sad eyes and said, “The nightmare for me was definitely feeling like I was forgotten and that I was going to end up alone.”I no longer saw a superstar. My heart ached for a young person who was an ocean away from everyone she knew. “Got here and I was all alone… I was just like ah, hell no, my life is coming to an end,” she said. Continue reading...

President Joe Biden on Tuesday blasted the 'radical' draft opinion suggesting the supreme court may be be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide, saying it would threaten 'a whole range of rights' if it holds. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One, Biden said he hoped the draft would not be finalised by justices, contending it reflects a 'fundamental shift in American jurisprudence' that threatens other rights such as privacy and marriage

John Roberts says leak of opinion to overturn Roe v Wade ‘intended to undermine the integrity of our operations’John Roberts, the US chief justice, has announced an investigation into a leak showing that the supreme court provisionally voted to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade case that legalised abortion nationwide.Publication of the draft opinion by the Politico website on Monday night sparked demonstrations outside America’s highest court, condemnation from Joe Biden and fears that the judiciary has suffered profound damage to its reputation for independence. Continue reading...

Regulation would be returned to states where lawmakers in south and midwest have enacted bans in anticipation of court’s decisionMore than half of US states will outlaw abortion immediately or as soon as practicable, if a leaked draft decision from five supreme court justices remains substantially unchanged.The result would send hundreds of thousands of people in 26 states hostile to abortion elsewhere to terminate a pregnancy – either by traveling hundreds of miles to an abortion clinic or seeking to self-manage abortion through medication from grassroots or illicit groups. Continue reading...

Officials have been searching for murder suspect Casey Cole White and corrections officer Vicky White since FridayA corrections officer at an Alabama jail was having a romantic relationship with a murder suspect who recently escaped from the facility, allegedly with the guard’s help, authorities said on Tuesday.Since Friday, officials have been searching for both the inmate, 38-year-old Casey Cole White, and the corrections officer, Vicky White, 56. The pair are not related despite sharing the same last name. Continue reading...

Democrats condemn supreme court’s draft opinion and urge voters to support them in November to protect reproductive rightsThe stunning revelation that the US supreme court has privately voted to overturn Roe v Wade immediately thrust one of the most polarizing issues in American life to the forefront of the national political debate, and now abortion rights promises to reshape the dynamics of the coming midterm elections.The draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito and obtained by Politico in a highly unusual and possibly unprecedented leak from the nation’s highest court, would strike down Roe, the landmark supreme court decision that has guaranteed access to abortion for nearly half a century, and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v Casey – that largely upheld that right. Continue reading...

Microsoft co-founder reflects on ‘a tough year’ after end of 27-year marriage to Melinda French GatesBill Gates has responded to allegations of an extramarital affair on the first anniversary of the joint announcement that he and Melinda French Gates were getting divorced.“I certainly made mistakes and I take responsibility,” the Microsoft co-founder told Today on Tuesday morning when asked if he was ever unfaithful throughout his 27-year marriage to French Gates. Continue reading...

Fifty to 100 people arriving at camp every day as some told at US border in Tijuana they would no longer be admittedOn a dusty field on the east side of Mexico’s sprawling capital, about 500 Ukrainian refugees are waiting in large tents under a searing sun for the United States government to tell them they can come.The camp has only been open a week and 50 to 100 people are arriving every day. Some have already been to the US border in Tijuana where they were told they would no longer be admitted. Others arrived at airports in Mexico City or Cancún, anywhere they could find a ticket from Europe. Continue reading...

People protested in Washington after reported leak of US supreme court draft majority opinion preparing to overturn Roe v Wade

Having spoken to women across the business, I know abuse is rife. But speaking out is made incredibly hardThanks to a joint investigation by BBC Three and the Guardian, allegations of sexual misconduct against the DJ Tim Westwood – claims he firmly denies – are finally being heard. As I listened to the testimony of the seven women who came forward, I had a strong sense of deja vu. Last year I spoke to women across the industry for another BBC Three film, Music’s Dirty Secrets, and many stories mirrored those told by Westwood’s accusers.What I learned from making my film, and in my research for a follow-up documentary, is that across the music industry, there is a problem with sexism, misogyny and sexual misconduct. It seems those at the top are only moved to act when there’s a major scandal (and therefore serious negative publicity) brewing. Part of the problem is that proving allegations of sexual misconduct is notoriously hard, especially if those accused are powerful and extremely litigious. Yet the #MeToo movement, which led to the downfall of the film producer Harvey Weinstein and other powerful figures, seems to have bypassed the music industry entirely, even though many people I’ve spoken to believe it is even worse than Hollywood.Tamanna Rahman is a film-maker based in London Continue reading...

The US supreme court leak shows that the levers of power are pulled by those with no skin in the game, at the expense of those with an entire uterus in itAn American girl born this week will have fewer rights than an American girl born in 1973. This is the likely import of the leaked US supreme court draft opinion on abortion rights – and cause for a huge thank-you-very-much to all those guys who suggested that women marching on Washington in January 2017 were “overreacting” to the election of Donald Trump. Please make sure to tell women again when they are being overemotional – even as they sit and watch one of Trump’s justice picks scream and sob his way through his own confirmation hearings. In the meantime, resign yourself to yet another “quirk” of the looking-glass world Trump has created. Of course – OF COURSE – women’s access to abortion would end up being restricted or removed by the deliberate decisions of a man widely imagined to have personally helped to keep the Manhattan abortion sector afloat for decades.I’m kidding, of course! We have absolutely no idea whether abortion services have or haven’t ever been accessed by anyone connected with a draft-avoider who described avoiding STDs in the 80s as “my personal Vietnam”. “That’s an interesting question,” Trump replied to the New York Times when asked, during the 2016 campaign, if he’d ever been involved with a woman who had undergone a termination during their relationship. “What’s your next question?” Continue reading...

Most attendees avoided a full embrace of the theme, or an interesting subversion of it – they showed up in dresses that looked lovely and uneventfulAmid a global economic downturn and worsening inflation in America, critics had described the theme for this year’s Met Gala – Gilded Glamour and White Tie – as “out of touch”.Though one might argue it was incredibly apt; poverty was rife in late-19th century New York, even while elites on the Upper East Side continued to hold “patriarch balls”, in order to create “a circle of elite New Yorkers at the top of the city’s social hierarchy”, as Sven Beckert wrote in his 2003 book The Monied Metropolis. Continue reading...

Authorities encouraged by shifting winds but blaze feeding on drought-parched landscape expected to keep growingFire crews were battling on several fronts to keep the largest wildfire burning in the US from pushing into more populated areas as it fed on drought-parched landscape in northern New Mexico.Authorities were encouraged by a forecast for Tuesday of improving humidity and shifting winds. But the blaze was expected to keep growing, putting it on track to possibly be one of the largest and most destructive in state history. Continue reading...

New York passed a law to improve pay transparency, which would shrink the gender pay gap. But a group of companies are using some vile tactics to delay itAn average job description these days reads something like this. Duties: Everything from editing short films to creating pivot tables in Excel to wowing clients with interpretative dance! Hours: Every single hour in the day. Qualifications: 15 years in this field, plus a PhD. Compensation: Haha, why would we tell you that? Nah, you’re going to have to waste your time filling in a ton of paperwork and going to a bunch of interviews before we’ll let you in on that little secret. For now, all we can say is that it’s “competitive”. But not so “competitive” that we’re keen to advertise it.As anyone who has ever looked for a job knows, companies can be maddeningly cryptic about their compensation packages; it’s pretty rare to see a salary range in job postings. But that’s starting to change. There is a growing body of evidence that salary transparency is a powerful tool in closing the gender and racial pay gap, and there’s increasing pressure around the world for employers to start being more open about what they pay people. The EU, for example, is currently mulling a groundbreaking proposal that would mean large employers would have to provide salary ranges on job ads and workers would have the right to request pay data broken down by gender and job level. Continue reading...

Ron Galella, nicknamed the Godfather of US paparazzi, has died at his New Jersey home aged 91. The photographer gained notoriety for his candid shots and celebrity feuds, including with Jackie Onassis and Marlon Brando – who punched him outside a New York restaurant and broke his jaw Continue reading...

Speaker warns scrapping Roe v Wade would be ‘greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years’ as AOC calls for Senate reform

According to a recent poll, 82% of American voters would support a decision by the National Park Service to stop selling and distributing single-use plastic at national parksThe writer Wallace Stegner once called the national parks “America’s best idea”, but the second half of that quote is more resonant today: “They reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” In these challenging times, we must look for decisions that reflect us at our best.National parks like the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Yellowstone and Acadia provide the closest thing we have to experiencing unbridled nature. They also represent our collective decision not to do something in special places that can harm their environment, like cutting down the forest, mining for minerals or hunting wildlife. Over time our understanding of what is the right thing not to do has grown and matured. One of those right things not to do is provide single-use plastics in our national parks.Jonathan B Jarvis served 40 years with the National Park Service and was its 18th directorChristy Leavitt is the plastics campaign director for the international ocean advocacy organization Oceana Continue reading...

Walking barefoot can boost your circulation, improve sleep quality and reduce inflammation, pain and tension, reflexologists sayThere’s an old African proverb that states: “When you leave your shoes at the doorstep, you leave your troubles behind.” And if you – like me – can’t stand the thought of people traipsing through your house with their filthy outside shoes, then you probably take this adage quite literally.Well, if you’re tired of being shamed for being a stickler about these things, then I’ve got good news for you. A group of environmental chemists who study what kinds of contaminants people are exposed to in their own homes weighed in on the great shoe debate – and it turns out we were right: wearing your outside shoes inside won’t just mess up your carpet; it is, in fact, scientifically gross.Tayo Bero is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

In an unprecedented revelation, a document written by conservative justice Samuel Alito says ‘Roe was egregiously wrong from the start’. Plus, politics front and centre at the Met GalaGood morning.The US supreme court has provisionally voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide in America, according to a draft opinion reported on by Politico.How have campaigners reacted? The leaked opinion has been described as “horrifying and unprecedented”.Could dismantling Roe v Wade imperil other ‘core, basic human rights’? The decision could potentially affect gay rights, contraceptives and fertility treatments.What will US’s future look like if abortion becomes a crime again? As Roe v Wade faces a direct challenge, criminal defense attorneys, prosecutors, local judges and police begin to lay out what it would look like to criminalize abortion.What else is happening? The director of the United Nations World Food Programme in Germany has warned that millions of tonnes of grain is stuck in Ukraine due to sea ports being blocked by Russian military action.What else do we know? Here’s what we know on day 69 of the invasion. Continue reading...

When police shot Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the story was reported around the world, thanks in no small part to star basketball playersOn 23 August 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer Rusten Shesky shot Jacob Blake seven times in front of three of his children. Blake’s name, along with those of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, was invoked in protests across the United States as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, which surged in the wake of several high-profile shootings by police officers in 2020.Sheskey said he had shot Blake after he became alarmed that he had a knife in his possession. That claim becomes even more striking when you consider that Kenosha police allowed a white teenager, Kyle Rittenhouse, to walk around with an AR-15 during a protest in the wake of Blake’s shooting and later used the weapon to shoot two anti-racism demonstrators dead. I’m not saying white privilege is the reason for the different responses from the police, but I’m not sure what other explanation is plausible. Continue reading...

Flight attendants report sleeping on airport floors when employers fail to find them hotel roomsUS airlines are still experiencing staffing shortages as air travel rebounded after initial Covid-19 shutdowns in 2020 when many airline workers were encouraged to go on furlough, resign, or retire early.The phenomenon promises to disrupt travel for flyers even as Americans largely seek to return to many pre-pandemic habits, including air travel for work and tourism. Continue reading...

Protesters gathered outside the US supreme court in Washington on Monday night after a leak appeared to reveal Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide, would be overturned, according to a draft opinion about a provisional vote by the court reported on by Politico.

Leaked initial draft majority opinion suggests court is poised to overturn ruling that legalised abortion across USA leaked initial draft majority opinion suggests the US supreme court is poised to overturn the Roe v Wade decision that legalised abortion nationwide, Politico has reported.The unprecedented leak stunned Washington. It holds the potential to reshape the political landscape ahead of US midterm elections in November. Here is some reaction to the report. Continue reading...

From Studio 54 to Paradise Garage, Bernstein was there to document the euphoric late 70s peak of the New York City disco scene Continue reading...

From Russia to India, it has never been more dangerous to pursue the truth. But unity and new tactics bring hopeShould we be celebrating press freedom at all today? Last year a record number of journalists were jailed worldwide. Five out of every six of us live in a country where press freedom has declined over the past five years; some 400 journalists have been killed in the same time frame. Vladimir Putin has crushed the last vestiges of independent journalism inside Russia. And from India to the Philippines to the UK, there’s been a sharp rise in coordinated, misogynist attacks against female journalists.There seem few causes for celebration, then. And yet this year, I’m daring to believe there’ll be some cautious reasons for hope.Mary Fitzgerald is director of expression at the Open Society Foundations, and former editor-in-chief of openDemocracy Continue reading...

A woman’s right to have an abortion through the first trimester of pregnancy was protected nationally in 1973 following the supreme court’s landmark ruling

There is no condition more essential to democratic citizenship than a person’s control over her own body. We can’t call ourselves a free country without itIt’s the worst possible outcome: according to a draft majority opinion published by Politico, the US supreme court has voted to overturn Roe v Wade, along with its sister decision Planned Parenthood v Casey. This momentous ruling will result in abortion becoming immediately illegal in an estimated 26 states when it is officially issued, likely sometime next month.The draft opinion, authored by Samuel Alito, the most rabidly hateful member of the court’s archconservative wing, will upend 50 years of precedent and undo a landmark ruling that has profoundly shaped legal doctrine, popular conceptions of the law, and millions of American lives. It will make women prisoners to their own bodies, and to men’s ideas of what those bodies must mean. It will make our country weaker, crueler, stupider and less vibrant. Continue reading...

All the wildest looks from fashion’s biggest night at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Guests are dressed to the theme of ‘Gilded Glamor’ for the opening night of the In America: An Anthology of Fashion exhibition at the museum’s Costume Institute

In an unprecedented revelation, a document written by Justice Samuel Alito says ‘Roe was egregiously wrong from the start’The US supreme court has provisionally voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationwide in America, according to a draft opinion reported on by Politico.In what appeared to be a stunning and unprecedented leak, Politico said on Monday evening it had obtained an initial majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and circulated in the court on 10 February. Continue reading...

Marc and Debra Tice are expected to meet with the president at the White House to speak about their son, Austin TiceJoe Biden said he was meeting Monday with the parents of American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria 10 years ago.The meeting with Marc and Debra Tice was expected to take place at the White House. Continue reading...

Officials blamed the decline on lower birth rates, higher deaths from the pandemic and fewer people moving in from other statesCalifornia’s population has shrunk for the second year in a row, according to newly released figures.Officials blamed the decrease on declining birth rates, higher deaths from the pandemic and fewer people moving into the state from elsewhere in the US. California lost 117,552 people in 2021, putting its population at 39,185,605, the California department of finance said Monday. Continue reading...

About 1,000 firefighters battle Calf Canyon fire, largest active wildfire in US amid warning that refusal to evacuate could be fatalThe largest active wildfire in the US has forced thousands from their homes in New Mexico, as unusually fast-spreading blazes dot the drought-stricken south-west.The blaze, dubbed the Calf Canyon fire, has consumed more than 121,000 acres (49,000 hectares), or more than half the area of New York City, tearing through centuries-old settlements and vacation homes in forested mountains 30 miles (48km) north-east of Santa Fe. Continue reading...

Journalists have been chased from parliament by police and attacked by the prime minister. Now more than ever we need a free pressAt the end of April, a reporter and a cameraman stood outside the national parliament in Honiara. They were trying to film the Solomon Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, as he walked in. But police arrived and chased them from the building.It prompted outrage among journalists. As they stood around discussing it afterwards, one said in Pijin: “Ma any cathedral,” meaning “as if it’s a cathedral” – a sacred place where filming is inappropriate. Everyone burst out laughing. This was a democratic country’s parliament, which journalists have a duty to cover. Continue reading...