Rally for abortion rights
UNITED STATES - Thousands of activists, many in pink, took to the streets across the United States on Saturday in a national day of action calling for safe and legal access to abortion. The demonstrations are a response to leaked draft opinion showing the United States Supreme Court’s conservative majority is considering overturning Roe v. Wade, a landmark 1973 ruling guaranteeing abortion access nationwide. “I just think that nobody has the right to make a decision on somebody else’s body,” said Hanna Williamson, 20, from the city of Suffolk, Virginia, who drove three hours to join several thousand protesters in Washington.
UKRAINE - Ukraine accused Russian forces of dropping phosphorus bombs on Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant yesterday, as the families of the fighters trapped in the sprawling complex said they fear their fight was coming to an end.
An aerial video posted on social media yesterday showed the attack on the plant, where Ukrainian soldiers have been making a final stand against the Russian onslaught on the port city that has been all-but reduced to rubble.
After weeks of Russian siege and bombardment, Mariupol - found in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region - is in Russian hands, but hundreds of Ukrainian fighters are holding out under heavy fire at the steel works.
A number of civilians who were sheltering in the plant were evacuated this month with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN.
The footage of the attack begins with an aerial view of the vast Azovstal plant, when suddenly a Russian missile detonates in mid-air - releasing a fiery burst over the already heavily damaged factory buildings below.
‘Sparks’ - which are actually a grouping of incendiary munitions - fall to the ground and ignite. From a distance, the explosions look almost like fire crackers, but in reality are a series of countless detonations.
As the camera pans out, more bursts of munitions are seen erupting over the plant, raining flaming explosives down from above.