pawel.gaul/Getty Images(LONDON) The U.S. is warning of a looming potential "large scale massacre" in El Fasher, a city in Sudan, as troops from the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group and allied militias encircle the city in what the U.S. says are "indications of an imminent offensive."U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned that El Fasher is "on the precipice of a large-scale massacre," calling on the RSF to end its siege and swear off any attack on the city."A crisis of epic proportions is brewing in El Fasher," said Thomas-Greenfield.El Fasher also known as Al-Fashir is a city in North Darfur and one of Darfur s largest cities. The besieged city is home to an estimated 800,000 people, according to the U.N., including many who have been displaced by the civil war that began more than a year ago. The city is also a key humanitarian hub for western Darfur, the vast area home to around a quarter of Sudan s population.A
The Good Brigade/Getty Images(NEW YORK) Florida s law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy took effect on Wednesday, becoming one of the most restrictive states in the country on abortion access.Florida s six-week ban replaced the state s previous 15-week abortion ban, prohibiting the procedure before most women know they are pregnant.In the South, abortion is now either banned or severely restricted in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana.The closest state to Florida with no gestational limits on abortion is Virginia.On April 1, the Florida State Supreme Court issued a decision to uphold the state s 15-week abortion ban in response to a legal challenge asking the court to throw out the ban.The six-week trigger ban signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis went into effect Wednesday, 30 days after the court s ruling.The decision came as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Planned Parenthood, the Center f
Bloomberg Creative/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) The Federal Reserve is set to announce a decision on Wednesday about whether to adjust its benchmark interest rate, just days after new government data showed that the economy is cooling off.The slowdown has coincided with a months-long stretch of stubborn inflation, putting pressure on the Fed to keep interest rates high despite a risk of hindering economic activity with expensive borrowing costs.Economists widely expect the Fed to leave interest rates unchanged. Such a move would push back rate cuts that the central bank expects to make some time this year.At its most recent meeting, in March, the Fed stuck to its previous projection of three rate cuts by the end of 2024, even as it opted to hold interest rates steady for the fifth consecutive time.That approach has amounted to a prolonged pause of the aggressive rate hiking cycle that began roughly two years ago when the central bank sought to rein in rapid price increases.Inflation has
ABC News(WASHINGTON) Associate Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer retired from the high court in 2022 but isn t finished prodding his former conservative colleagues to abandon what he sees as an aggressive tack to the right in how they interpret the law."Slow down. Period," Breyer, 85, said bluntly of his message to the court s majority in a wide-ranging interview with ABC News Live PRIME."You re there a long time," he added, addressing the three justices nominated by former President Donald Trump. "It takes three years, four years, five years, maybe, before you begin to adjust."Breyer has been on an all-out media blitz with the release of his 10th book, Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism, an attack on the method of judging favored by his former colleagues that now threatens generations of established legal precedent.As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to release major rulings in a historic series of cases this spring, Brey