- Hefty Australian penguin chick 'Pesto' becomes star
- Fashion's fun 'Frankenstein' flies after Olympic triumph
- Volkswagen crisis pits homegrown leaders against each other
- Princess Zelda takes the lead in 'Echoes of Wisdom'
- Astros clinch division title, Yankees kept waiting
- Asian markets boosted again after another Chinese rate cut
- The struggle to keep track of Gaza war deaths
- China cuts another key interest rate to boost economy
- Restarting nuclear power plants: the unprecedented gamble in the US
- US state executes man despite conviction doubts
- Asylum seeker lifts South Korea hopes at Homeless World Cup
- Hostages freed in Gaza truce pine for those left behind
- Pope offers refuge to Myanmar's jailed Suu Kyi: report
- Tragic tale of two West Bank teenagers freed in Gaza truce
- US intel warns of Iran threats to assassinate Trump: campaign
- In election, Hollywood is about cash not endorsements
- UK foreign minister Lammy seeks 'strongest position' for Ukraine
- Macron presses Iran president for Lebanon de-escalation
- UNRWA fears new 'tragedy' as Lebanon violence adds strain: chief to AFP
- Russia mulls ban on 'childless propaganda'
- Blackwater founder probed by Venezuela over anti-Maduro campaign
- Crypto CEO and Bankman-Fried ex Caroline Ellison gets two-year sentence
- Hezbollah announces death of commander after strike on south Beirut
- Tatum hungry for more after breakthrough Celtics success
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs sued for alleged 2001 rape
- Biden pleads for democracy in emotional UN farewell
- New York area port prepares for possible US strike disruption
- Rodri 'irreplaceable' but Guardiola confident Man City will still compete
- Brook 'relieved' as maiden ODI hundred sets up first win as England captain
- Dior's arrows and Amazons as Saint Laurent revives its master
- Mbappe strikes again as Madrid hold off Alaves
- Nkunku hits Chelsea hat-trick, Man City edge into League Cup last 16
- Amnesty calls for commission to probe Kenya protest deaths
- Bolivian government rejects Morales ultimatum for cabinet reshuffle
- US Congress calls on Novo Nordisk to lower drug prices
- Stock markets advance on China stimulus
- Russia 'can only be forced into peace," Zelensky tells UN
- Hundred hero Brook keeps England alive in Australia ODI series
- Biden pleads for democracy in final UN address
- Brook's hundred sees England beat Australia in 3rd ODI
- Alarm grows as Israel and Hezbollah exchange intense fire
- NFL legend Favre reveals Parkinson's diagnosis
- Biden urges world to 'stop arming generals' in Sudan
- Defying experts, Trump vows tariff-driven US economic boom
- Stokes open to England white-ball return
- No peak oil demand 'on the horizon', phaseout a 'fantasy': OPEC
- Sri Lanka's new leftist leader dissolves parliament, calls snap polls
- England scrum-half Mitchell to see specialist on neck injury
- Under-pressure Masood to lead Pakistan in England Tests
- Storm Helene on track to hit Florida as major hurricane
On both sides of US abortion debate, protesters vow to 'fight'
Shouts of "My body! My choice!" clashed with "Abortion is violence" as rival demonstrators for and against abortion rights faced off outside the US Supreme Court for a second day on Tuesday.
Crowds have been gathering in front of the Washington building since the leak of a draft ruling suggesting the court is poised to overturn the nationwide right to an abortion -- something feared or hoped for by those on either side of the hot-button issue in the United States.
"I'll fight it with every breath I have," said Lynn Hart, a retired grandmother of four in her 70s, who had an abortion as a teenager -- before the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade made the procedure a constitutionally protected right.
She had another abortion when it was legal -- a decision she and her husband made together and one she is "horrified" could be "stripped away from my grandsons and granddaughters."
Nearby a young woman crouched on her knees as she stamped sheet after sheet of paper with "My body, my choice," before taping them to wire hangers on a fence -- in reference to dangerous methods used in some illegal abortions before Roe v. Wade.
But for a small, vocal crowd decked out in bright capes and stick-on gemstones, banging on black buckets, the draft decision is what they've been hoping for.
Kristin Monaghan, a 30-year-old anti-abortion activist from Seattle who describes herself as a long-time "left-wing feminist pro-lifer" and an atheist, said she'd been skeptical that the conservative-majority court would overturn Roe v. Wade, but now "they're showing themselves a little bit."
Monaghan's fellow demonstrator with the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising group, 22-year-old Archie Smith, said "there's still a lot of work to be done," but that he was "hoping the justices will side with life."
- 'Fight is not over' -
As the group chanted, sang and drummed, other protesters stood in their midst holding signs reading "Catholics support abortion access."
On an issue often painted as pitting anti-abortion religious conservatives against secular liberals in favor of abortion rights, a spokesman for the organization Catholics for Choice said they came out to "give a voice" to the Catholic majority.
"It's understandable that people would have that misperception about Catholic support for abortion, but we're here to just state the truth, which is that most Catholics are pro-choice," the group's press secretary John Becker told AFP.
Becker emphasized the leaked document was a draft, saying, "No matter what the court decides in June this fight is not over."
US President Joe Biden has already weighed in on the politically explosive issue, urging voters to elect officials who back abortion rights and calling on Congress to enshrine legal abortion in US law, warning that the ruling, if finalized, would have implications beyond abortion.
It's a view shared by one protester, 37-year-old Jen Miller, who worried that the draft ruling could "hurt a lot of marginalized communities."
"This is very much a litmus test of where our country is going to go," said Miller, who works in a bookstore in northern Virginia.
Amid the noisy crowd demonstrators and media, she showed her anger silently, leaning against a barrier with her back to the imposing marble steps of the country's highest court, one finger up.
"I'm just flicking off the Supreme Court. It just makes me feel better."
C.Kovalenko--BTB