Argentina’s Senate voted on Wednesday (30 December) to legalize abortion, a first for a big country in Latin America and a triumph for women’s rights campaigners achieved over the visceral objection of the Catholic Church.
Abortion is extremely rare in a region where the Church has held cultural and political sway for centuries. Previously, it was allowed on demand only in Communist Cuba, tiny Uruguay and parts of Mexico.
The fiercely contentious vote was held at 4:00 a.m. after a marathon debate that lasted through the night. In a vote of 38-29 with one abstention, the Senate backed the government proposal to allow terminations through the 14th week of pregnancy. The lower house had already approved it this month.
The latest on the pandemic from around the world overnight. Photo credit: Getty
Huge swathes of England will be placed under stringent COVID-19 restrictions, the British government announced on Wednesday (local time), as a highly infectious virus variant sweeps the country and pushes case numbers to a record level.
Britain has reported almost 40,000 new infections as the mutated variant of the coronavirus - which could be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original strain - causes case numbers and hospital admissions to soar.
The number of recorded deaths - 744 - was also the highest figure since April. Against this backdrop of rising infections, rising hospitalisations and rising numbers of people dying from coronavirus, it is absolutely vital that we act, Health Minister Matt Hancock told a media briefing. We simply cannot have the kind of Christmas that we all yearn for.