Why US midterms are likely to have a profound affect on women’s rights in America
In a park on a Saturday afternoon in suburban Atlanta, a group of young women gather, eating pizza and talking.
But this is no idle chit chat, they are discussing the future leadership of this country, and specifically what the midterm elections on Tuesday mean for their reproductive rights.
Most of them are first-time voters and newly energised by the Supreme Court decision earlier this year to revoke the constitutional right to choose abortion, known colloquially as Roe versus Wade. They are volunteering with the abortion provider Planned Parenthood and are canvassing potential voters in a mostly black neighbourhood.
“I think it’s important that people understand you have a voice and a say in the matter,” Brandy Nalyana, from Atlanta, says.
“With the overturn of Roe v Wade you felt powerless, you were in the streets and nobody was listening to you. But now we have midterms, you’re finally able to utilise your voice.”
Brandy Nalyana, from Atlanta
They are part of a strategy being rolled out across this country to use the increasingly restrictive patchwork of abortion rights to drive voters to the polls.
Each state now decides unilaterally what abortion rights are applied and 13 states have already banned or severely restricted access to abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.
Democrats hope to motivate women, particularly, to vote blue and protect their future right to choose.
Nalah Lewis, a policy officer at Reproductive Justice, is going door to door, encouraging people to go to the polls on Tuesday.
As a younger woman she had an abortion and wants others to have the right to choose.
“I personally was not mentally prepared for [having a child]. I didn’t have the finances for that and I wanted to finish school,” Nalah says.
Nalah Lewis is a policy officer at Reproductive Justice
“Republicans are working overtime to take our rights away. I can’t imagine having to drive hundreds of miles away and worry about childcare and taking time off from work or not having the funds to be able to do that. I’m enraged and that’s why I’m asking people to know that abortion is on the ballot.”
Pro choice advocates fear that if both houses of congress flip to the Republicans there could be an effort to institute a federal, nationwide ban on abortion, denying states their ability to keep abortion legal.
In Georgia, the hotly contested Senate race is between incumbent Democrat Reverend Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, a former American football star who is endorsed by former president Donald Trump.
Republican Herschel Walker is a former American football star who is endorsed by former president Donald Trump
The pair are currently deadlocked and if Walker wins it could be decisive in flipping the balance of power in this country back towards the Republican Party.
Walker ran his campaign on a message of anti abortion. In August he said he supported a total ban on abortion even in cases of rape and incest, although he has since revised this to say he supports Georgia’s current status of a six-week ban with exceptions.
But stories from Walker’s own past have emerged and been seized upon by his opponent.
Two women have claimed that Walker had extramarital affairs with them and paid for, or even pressured, them into having an abortion when they became pregnant.
Walker has denied the claims, not that the scandal seems to be affecting him in the polls or among his support base, which remains steadfast.
Lots of them were at a eating and drinking on Saturday at a tailgate party outside the Georgia Bulldogs football stadium, the team which Walker starred for.
“I’m not worried about it,” says Vanessa Brosnan, a Republican voter and football fan from Atlanta, “I don’t worry about him because he’s a good guy. He might have a past, but he’s let you know what his past is. There’s a thing called forgiveness.”
Others are plain about the basis of their support of Walker. “I’d vote for Herschel just because he gave us great football,” says Phillip Jennings, a farmer and Georgia Bulldogs fan from Soperton, Georgia.
He says he used to be a conservative Democrat but that the party has “lost its way” and he will now vote Republican across the ticket.
“Crime is rampant everywhere,” he says. “If they’re not killing them with a gun, they’re trying to kill them with a hammer and inflation is killing people, too.
“We’re in an awful place in this country, both Republicans and Democrats, we need a lot of leadership. We need to start looking forward, get these petty issues behind us.”
While many voters seem most animated about issues like crime, immigration and inflation, Democrats are keeping a laser focus on abortion rights.
After the Supreme Court decision to end the constitutional right to abortion, they experienced a significant boost in the polls but that has now disappeared.
As things stand, they could be heading for significant defeats on election night and that is likely to have a profound effect on women’s rights in America.
A business jet has crashed at a North Carolina airport, erupting into flames and killing multiple people, authorities have said.
The plane was linked to former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, officials added.
Flight records show the aircraft was registered to a company run by Biffle.
Greg Biffle pictured ahead of baseball game in May this year. Pic: AP
The Cessna C550 business jet had taken off from Statesville Regional Airport, around 45 miles north of Charlotte, shortly after 10am local time (3pm UK time) on Thursday, bound for Florida.
It then returned and was attempting to land, according to flight tracking data.
Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said: “I can confirm there were fatalities.” He did not share any further details.
The Federal Aviation Authority said six people were aboard the plane.
Footage from WSOC-TV showed emergency workers rushing on to the runway as flames burned near the wreckage.
Airport director John Ferguson said: “The airport now is closed until further notice. It will take some time to get the debris off the runway.”
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The airport’s website says it offers corporate aviation facilities for Fortune 500 companies and several NASCAR teams.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into the crash.
The anticipation had been that it would be a speech of significance.
The White House had announced two days earlier that the president was to deliver an evening address to the nation.
Traditionally the 9pm slot, interrupting the prime-time schedule on all the networks, is reserved for big news – usually international in nature.
Speculation had grown through the day that he may use the speech to address the prospect of US military action in Venezuela.
Read more: Trump has told us why he’s going after Venezuela
Instead, Trump took the big audience moment to make what was essentially a campaign speech but delivered at speed and combative in tone.
He blamed former president Joe Biden for the economy he inherited, on the “brink of ruin”, adding that he is “bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast”.
Speaking from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room, he said: “Our country is back, stronger than ever before. We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the nation has never seen.
“It’s not done yet, but boy are we making progress, nobody can believe what’s going on.”
Flanked by Christmas trees, but the speech hardly offered goodwill to all men
He was speaking against an increasingly challenging backdrop politically and economically.
Petrol prices are down, but the broad cost of living continues to rise, and people do not seem to be feeling the economic boom he claims to be unleashing.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, the highest it’s been for five years.
The only real announcement in his speech was a bonus for members of the military.
He said that the government would send cheques of $1,776 to all service members. The idea, he said, had only been finalised “about 30 minutes ago”, and the cheques were already in the post.
A fascinating speech – in tone if not substance
It was a very notable presidential address, not for what he announced because there was no big reveal. It was the tone which fascinated me.
The 9pm live address was his framing of his greatest hits from the past year, but delivered by an angry and frustrated man.
“Why are my polling numbers not better?” was the vibe he gave off.
“Why is the economy not doing better? Why are you – the voters – not feeling better off?”
Not actual quotes, but the clear subtext.
Read more: White House plaques attack ex-presidents
Trump’s address was a selection of his greatest hits. Pic: Reuters
It is his low polling, rising unemployment, the cost of living and inflation challenges which prompted this address.
Had he come out and, off script, with empathy, said – “look, I get it… it’s taking time for you to feel my economic success….” – if he’d said all that with meaning, I think that would have landed in a more sympathetic way.
Instead – reading, unusually, off a script, he came across as a very frustrated president and extremely defensive.
Here’s the worry for Team Trump. So often out and about with voters, I hear people say: “Oh I don’t really like his style, his language, his divisiveness. But he’s a businessman. He knows how to run the country and the economy.”
If he loses those people, he’s in real trouble. That’s especially true when combined with suggestions he is losing some in his base too – just listen to his fan-turned-foe, MAGA stalwart, Marjorie Taylor Green.
One last thought. There are observers who think Trump is kind of unhinged; losing his marbles a bit. The slightly strange tone of this speech will be evidence for them, for sure.
Donald Trump’s administration has installed new plaques beneath portraits of former presidents attacking his predecessors in the US president’s typical fashion.
Among the plaques, apparently written by Mr Trump himself, is one for Joe Biden reading: “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst president in American history.”
The “Presidential Walk of Fame” at the White House features a picture or painting of every former US president – except Mr Biden, who has been replaced by a photo of an autopen.
Biden’s refers to ‘Sleepy Joe’. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed Mr Biden was not mentally capable by the end of his term as president and his staff made decisions on his behalf, using an autopen to sign them off without his knowledge.
The device reproduces a person’s signature, allowing them to repeatedly sign documents without having to do so by hand each time.
The damning decoration goes on to falsely accuse Mr Biden of winning the “most corrupt election ever” and claims he made “unprecedented use of the autopen.”
Obama’s says he presided over a ‘stagnant economy’. Pic: Reuters
Another plaque refers to “Barack Hussein Obama” as “one of the most divisive political figures in American history.”
The plaque underneath Bill Clinton’s photo reads: “In 2016, president Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, lost the presidency to President Donald J Trump!”
Even George W Bush, a fellow Republican – though not a Trump supporter – is given a badge of rebuke, with his plaque saying the former president “started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which should not have happened.”
Bush’s plaque attacks the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pic: Reuters
The “Presidential Walk of Fame” is a recent addition to Mr Trump’s White House and displays the portraits along corridors between the Oval Office and the South Lawn.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the plaques were an “eloquent” description of each president’s legacy.
“As a student of history, many were written directly by the president himself,” she said.
It is the latest change to Mr Trump’s White House, which has seen the increased use of gold-coloured accents and gilded fixtures that mimic the decorations in Trump Tower in New York and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
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