Anti-abortion activists and pro-abortion rights supporters took to the streets of Washington after a leaked draft ruling indicated the US Supreme Court was preparing to overturn the landmark Roe vs Wade ruling that has guaranteed abortion rights across the US for almost five decades.
The 98-page draft opinion, dated February 10 and signed by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, relates to the constitutionality of a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks.
According to a Politico report, Justice Alito was joined by at least four other conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch — in siding with Mississippi and upholding the ban. It was unclear from the report which side the court’s Chief Justice John Roberts would side with.
“It is time to heed the constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,” Alito wrote in the draft opinion.
The unprecedented leak triggered immediate outrage among Democratic politicians and groups dedicated to the protection of abortion rights in the US.
The two top Democrats in Congress — Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer — expressed fury in a statement while some progressive lawmakers called for quick legislative remedies.
Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator, said it was time to codify the protections of Roe vs Wade into law, while Mondaire Jones, a Democratic representative from the northern suburbs of New York City, said the Supreme Court should bring in new members.
If the Roe precedent is thrown out, nearly half of US states would be poised to outlaw abortion thanks to statutes that include so-called trigger laws, which automatically come into force if the decision is overturned, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Should Roe vs Wade be overturned? Send your thoughts to firstft@ft.com. Here’s the rest of the day’s news — Gordon
Five more stories in the news
1. Exclusive: Johnson joins bid to win Arm listing for London Boris Johnson has joined a push to convince British chip designer Arm to list in London, as government officials grow concerned over lasting damage if the country’s best-known tech company chooses New York for its IPO.
2. US 10-year Treasury yield reaches 3% The yield on the US 10-year Treasury note touched 3 per cent for the first time since 2018, pushing up the cost of borrowing for homeowners and businesses. Yields have risen this year as the Fed takes action to try to stem US inflation, which hit 8.5 per cent on an annual basis in March — its fastest rate of increase in 40 years.
3. Amazon union dealt a setback Amazon workers at a second facility in New York have rejected efforts to form a union, dealing a blow to a grassroots labour movement that hoped to capitalise on momentum from its surprise victory at a larger warehouse last month. Employees at a sorting facility in Staten Island voted by 618 to 380 against joining the Amazon Labor Union.
4. Germany warns consumers to expect higher costs from Russian oil embargo The warning came as Berlin said it was willing to back an embargo of Russian oil to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. EU energy ministers met yesterday to discuss an expected sixth package of sanctions against the Kremlin that diplomats say it will include a phased-in oil embargo to take full effect by the end of the year.
5. Citi acknowledges trading error There will be some red faces at Citi this morning after the US bank acknowledged an error by one of its traders that led to “a flash crash” in the share prices of many European companies. Nordic stocks were particularly hard hit, with Sweden’s benchmark OMX 30 tumbling as much as 7.9 per cent before recovering most of the losses.
The day ahead
US elections: JD Vance, the venture capitalist and author of Hillbilly Elegy, squares off against a clutch of rivals to replace outgoing Ohio senator Rob Portman, a former George W Bush administration official.
Go deeper: Vance represents a growing class of Republicans who have unabashedly embraced Trump — and are in many ways beholden to him.
Monetary policy The Federal Reserve starts a two-day policy meeting that is expected to result in its first half percentage point rise in interest rates since 2000 and signal more aggressive action to bring decades-high inflation under control.
Economic data Figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics are expected to show job openings decreased slightly to 11mn in March from 11.26mn the previous month. That data will also report the number of employees who quit their jobs in March.
Company earnings The US pharmaceutical company and Covid-19 vaccine maker Pfizer is expected to report first-quarter revenue increased 64 per cent to about $23.9bn, according to analysts polled by Refinitiv. KKR, Starbucks, Lyft, Airbnb, AIG, Advanced Micro Devices, and Match Group also report results.
War in Ukraine UK prime minister Boris Johnson will become the first western leader to address lawmakers in the Ukrainian parliament since Russia’s invasion. The UK will commit an additional £300mn of military aid. Separately, Narendra Modi has been invited to attend the G7 leaders’ summit next month in Germany as western powers attempt to woo New Delhi away from its longstanding alliance with Russia.
What else we’re reading
Triumphalism returns to haunt Xi Jinping China’s leader faces the nightmarish prospect that the months running up to the Communist Party Congress in November will be marred by an economic crunch and social tensions caused by repeated lockdowns, writes Gideon Rachman.
EU fires starting gun in fightback against Big Tech The EU’s Digital Services Act is not just more procedural drudgery on the EU’s conveyor belt of words. It is the first comprehensive declaration of a digital future founded on the legitimate authority of democratic rights and the rule of law, argues Shoshana Zuboff, professor emeritus at Harvard Business School.
Related: EU regulators have charged Apple with breaking competition law by abusing its dominant position in mobile payments.
FT ranking: Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies 2022 The inaugural FT ranking of Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies provides a snapshot of the corporate landscape on a continent where technology, fintech and support-service businesses have had to adapt to a radically altered environment.
US-China Tech Race: The great decoupling Some in the US want to see Chinese companies cut off from American investment, while hawkish factions in China have been fighting for a more self-sufficient and nationalistic tech sector. But is decoupling even possible? James Kynge asks in the season finale of our Tech Tonic podcast.
Would a Sinn Féin win open door to a united Ireland? Almost a quarter of a century after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement ended the Troubles — three decades of violence in which more than 3,500 people died — polls predict Sinn Féin, the political wing of the paramilitary IRA, will after Thursday’s election become the biggest party in Northern Ireland for the first time.
Deconstructing ‘dogfooding’ Executives testing a company’s product or service has been dubbed “dogfooding”: Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky plans to stay in the company’s properties every few weeks; Lyft boss John Zimmer does a driving shift on New Year’s Eve. Such practices are spreading beyond the tech sector.
Travel
Floating 500 miles west of Senegal, Santo Antão is Africa’s most western outpost and remains one of the least visited of Cape Verde’s nine inhabited islands. There is no airport and only two main roads. The mountainous isle is heaven for hikers.
Source: Economy - ft.com
