- ‘All the signals are that a US attack is imminent,’ Western military official says
- Trump says he believes the crackdown on protesters is easing
- US withdrawing some personnel from bases in Middle East as precaution, official says
- Israeli assessment sees US intervening, timing and scope unclear
- Western official: Iranian security apparatus remains in control
World
In Brazil, an abortion debate pits feminists against the church
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – In 2019, Mariana Leal de Souza, a 39-year-old Black woman living outside Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, was having a hard time coping with the suicide of her teenage son when she was confronted with more difficult news: She was pregnant.
“I couldn’t believe it,” the social worker told Al Jazeera during a recent video call. “Mentally and financially, I wasn’t ready for another pregnancy after the loss of my son.”
She decided to terminate, but there was a problem: Brazil’s Penal Code permits abortion only if the pregnancy is the result of rape, puts the mother’s health at risk or doctors diagnose severe malformations to the fetus. None of these applied to Leal de Souza.
So she enlisted the help of three close friends, one of whom had connections to an underground supplier of Cytotec, a medication originally intended for ulcers but repurposed by low-income women in Latin America as a means to terminate unwanted pregnancies. Pooling their resources, they came up with $150 to buy the medication.
But the experience was agonizing. As Leal de Souza recalled: “It felt as though my body was expelling everything. I experienced chills, intense abdominal pain and bleeding.” She assumed these were standard complications and tried to tough it out, but the ensuing weeks brought her no respite.
“The bleeding wouldn’t stop, yet I couldn’t seek hospital care for fear of legal repercussions,” she said.
Two months later, with her abdomen swelling, Leal de Souza began to fear for her life. She decided to seek assistance at a nearby public hospital where she endured prolonged wait times and a barrage of inquiries before medical staff finally examined her.
Doctors made a startling discovery: A fetus remained inside Leal de Souza’s womb. She had been carrying twins, and only one fetus had been expelled.
The hospital concluded that this was the result of a miscarriage, sparing de Souza from criminal charges.
“I felt a sense of relief, yet simmering resentment lingered, knowing that if I were … white or [a] woman of means, I could have accessed safe clinical care without endangering my life,” she said.
‘All women get abortions but … only the poor go to jail’
As many as 4 million abortions are performed annually in Brazil, Latin America’s most populous country. Of those, only 2,000, or 5 percent, are performed legally.
Women who undergo illegal abortions face prison sentences of up to three years if convicted, and the doctors who perform them can spend up to four years in prison. Part of Leal de Souza’s ordeal, she said, was that she was well aware of cases involving poor women who had faced incarceration for terminating their pregnancies.
Her story sheds light on a glaring reality in Brazil, a country that is home to more people of African descent than any other country in the world save Nigeria: Black and marginalized women bear the brunt of legislation that criminalizes abortion.
A study conducted by anthropologist Debora Diniz found Black women are 46 percent more likely than white women to resort to unsafe abortion practices.
A federal legislator representing Rio de Janeiro, Luciana Boiteux, spearheaded a legal initiative in the Supreme Court in 2017 proposing the enshrinement of abortion as a constitutional right.
“The decriminalization of abortion is inherently a racial justice issue,” she told Al Jazeera.
Brazil’s abortion laws have remained largely unchanged since the 1950s. What has changed is the emergence in recent years of an animated feminist movement, inspired, at least in part, by the legalization of abortion in neighbouring Argentina in 2020 and the inauguration a year earlier of President Jair Bolsonaro, whose conservative administration was widely viewed as antagonistic towards Black people and women.
Bolsonaro’s policies sparked a response in the form of campaigns such as Nem Presa Nem Morta (Neither Imprisoned Nor Dead), which fights for the decriminalisation of abortion, and the women-led, anti-Bolsonaro Ele Nao (Not Him). Rallies have also been held, such as a March 8 demonstration in which thousands of protesters took to the streets of Rio de Janeiro to demand racial justice and safe, legal access to abortions.
At the march, one woman carried a placard that read: “All women get abortions, but while the rich ones travel to get one, we the poor go to jail.”
The women’s movement in Brazil is growing, but it has encountered pushback from the evangelical movement in its efforts to improve reproductive health for women.
Evangelicals’ influence on Brazil’s abortion discourse
With the Christ the Redeemer statue standing high over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is typically associated with the Catholicism of its former colonizer, Portugal. But evangelical Christianity’s influence here began to expand 30 years ago, and today, one in three Brazilians identifies as evangelical. By some estimates, evangelicals will account for a majority of the country’s religious followers by 2032.
The proliferation of evangelicals in Brazil has helped discourage low-income women like Leal de Souza from seeking abortions.
“We’ve witnessed instances where evangelical nurses have exposed women and subsequently reported to authorities,” Boiteux, the federal legislator, told Al Jazeera in an interview in her office in downtown Rio.
Jacqueline Moraes Teixeira, a sociologist and researcher at the University of Brasilia, attributed evangelical growth to social and economic deficits in Brazil, one of the most unequal countries in the world.
“These churches bridge gaps left by the state, offering education, healthcare and sustenance, acting as indispensable [lifelines] for these communities,” she told Al Jazeera.
For Leal de Souza, however, evangelicals have shut down the communication that is the bulwark of democracy.
“We used to have open dialogues within my family and neighbours who are now evangelicals. Nowadays, dissent is met with condemnation. This silence prevented me from sharing my decision to terminate my pregnancy,” she said.
Evangelicals have also flexed their muscles on the political level. Of the 594 members of the National Congress, for example, 228 lawmakers from 15 parties belong to the Evangelical Parliamentary Front – 202 deputies and 26 senators.
“Evangelicals in Congress hold significant leverage and are regarded as an essential ethical bastion for religious activism in politics,” Moraes Teixeira said. “Consequently, their alliances and conservative stance carry significant societal weight.”
However, the final arbiter on lifting abortion restrictions is the Supreme Court.
In a session in September, Chief Justice Rosa Weber voted in favour of a measure to decriminalise abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy. But the process was halted by another Supreme Court judge, Luis Roberto Barroso, who has since replaced the retired Weber as chief justice.
An investigation by the Brazilian news outlet Agencia Publica found that in the weeks leading up to the court’s deliberations, conservative politicians circulated anti-abortion campaigns on popular social media platforms.
For his part, Barroso said he is in favour of decriminalisation but wants more deliberation. In an interview with Al Jazeera last month, he said: “It’s challenging for the court to act against the sentiment of 80 percent of the population. We must shift public perception.”
“It’s crucial to engage society in dialogue and clarify the real issue: the unjust criminalization disproportionately affecting marginalized women,” he continued. “With greater awareness, I believe attitudes can evolve.”
WASHINGTON/DUBAI/DOHA, Jan 14 (Reuters) – The United States is withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbours it would hit American bases if Washington strikes.
With Iran’s leadership trying to quell the worst domestic unrest the Islamic Republic has ever faced, Tehran is seeking to deter U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to intervene on behalf of anti-government protesters.
Sign up here.
The U.N. Security Council is due to meet on Iran on Thursday at the request of the United States.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was pulling some personnel from key bases in the region as a precaution given heightened regional tensions.
“All the signals are that a U.S. attack is imminent, but that is also how this administration behaves to keep everyone on their toes. Unpredictability is part of the strategy,” a Western military official told Reuters later on Wednesday.
At the White House, however, Trump suggested he was adopting a wait-and-see posture toward the crisis.
Trump told reporters that he has been told that killings in the Iranian government’s crackdown on the protests were subsiding and that he believes there is currently no plan for large-scale executions.
Asked who told him that the killings had stopped, Trump described them as “very important sources on the other side.”
The president did not rule out potential U.S. military action, saying “we are going to watch what the process is” before noting that his administration had received a “very good statement” from Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday “there is no plan” by Iran to hang people, when asked about the anti-government protests.
“There is no plan for hanging at all,” the foreign minister told Fox News in an interview on the “Special Report with Bret Baier” show. “Hanging is out of the question,” he said.
According to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Society, hangings are common in Iranian prisons.
TIMING REMAINS UNCLEAR
Two European officials said U.S. military intervention could come in the next 24 hours. An Israeli official also said it appeared Trump had decided to intervene, though the scope and timing remained unclear.
Qatar said drawdowns from its Al Udeid air base, the biggest U.S. base in the Middle East, were “being undertaken in response to the current regional tensions”.
Three diplomats said some personnel had been told to leave the base, though there were no immediate signs of large numbers of troops being bussed out to a soccer stadium and shopping mall as took place hours before an Iranian missile strike last year.
Britain was also withdrawing some personnel from an air base in Qatar ahead of possible U.S. strikes, The I Paper newspaper reported. The British defence ministry had no immediate comment.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in support of protesters in Iran, where thousands of people have been reported killed in a crackdown on the unrest against clerical rule.
Item 1 of 5 A woman reacts during the funeral of the security forces who were killed in the protests that erupted over the collapse of the currency’s value in Tehran, Iran, January 14, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
[1/5]A woman reacts during the funeral of the security forces who were killed in the protests that erupted over the collapse of the currency’s value in Tehran, Iran, January 14, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
Iran and its Western foes have both described the unrest, which began two weeks ago as demonstrations against dire economic conditions and rapidly escalated in recent days, as the most violent since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that installed Iran’s system of Shi’ite clerical rule.
An Iranian official has said more than 2,000 people have died. A rights group put the toll at more than 2,600.
Iran has “never faced this volume of destruction”, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi said on Wednesday, blaming foreign enemies.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot described “the most violent repression in Iran’s contemporary history”.
Iranian authorities have accused the U.S. and Israel of fomenting the unrest, carried out by people it calls armed terrorists.
IRAN ASKS REGIONAL STATES TO PREVENT A US ATTACK
Trump has openly threatened to intervene in Iran for days, without giving specifics. In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, he vowed “very strong action” if Iran executes protesters. He also urged Iranians to keep protesting and take over institutions, declaring “help is on the way”.
The senior Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tehran had asked U.S. allies in the region to prevent Washington from attacking Iran.
“Tehran has told regional countries, from Saudi Arabia and UAE to Turkey, that U.S. bases in those countries will be attacked” if the U.S. targets Iran, the official said.
Direct contacts between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff have been suspended, the official added.
The United States has forces across the region including the forward headquarters of its Central Command at Al Udeid in Qatar and the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
GOVERNMENT DOESN’T SEEM NEAR COLLAPSE, WESTERN OFFICIAL SAYS
The flow of information from inside Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout.
The U.S.-based HRANA rights group said it had so far verified the deaths of 2,403 protesters and 147 government-affiliated individuals, dwarfing tolls from previous waves of protests crushed by the authorities in 2022 and 2009.
The government’s prestige was hammered by a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign last June – joined by the U.S. – that followed setbacks for Iran’s regional allies in Lebanon and Syria. European powers restored U.N. sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme, compounding the economic crisis there.
The unrest on such a scale caught the authorities off guard at a vulnerable time, but it does not appear that the government faces imminent collapse, and its security apparatus still appears to be in control, one Western official said.
The authorities have sought to project images showing they retain public support. Iranian state TV broadcast footage of large funeral processions for people killed in the unrest in Tehran, Isfahan, Bushehr and other cities.
People waved flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and held aloft signs with anti-riot slogans.
Reporting by Elwely Elwelly and Jana Choukeir in Dubai, Bassam Masoud in Doha, John Irish in Paris, Lili Bayer in Brussels, Bo Erickson in Detroit, Susan Heavey, Joey Roulette, Doina Chiacu and Kanishka Singh in Washington, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; writing by Tom Perry, Peter Graff, Mark Heinrich and James Oliphant; editing by Frances Kerry, Alexandra Hudson, Gareth Jones, Diane Craft and Michael Perry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
World
Armed Kurdish fighters try to breach Iran border as regional threat grows amid protests: reports
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Armed Kurdish separatist groups tried to cross into Iran from Iraq in recent days, stoking fears that the country’s spiraling unrest has attracted dangerous foreign militants who could destabilize the wider region, according to reports.
Iranian officials said the attempted breach came amid a sweeping crackdown on nationwide protests against the country’s regime, with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leading the response, Reuters reported.
The Tasnim News Agency also reported armed militia groups operating in Iraq crossed the border in western and northwestern Iran, according to Middle East Monitor.
TOP IRANIAN OFFICIAL DOWNPLAYS DEATH TOLL, BLAMES ‘ISRAELI PLOT’ AS US CONSIDERS STRIKES
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters gather north of Kirkuk, Iraq. (Reuters)
Reuters had reported that three sources, including a senior Iranian official, said Turkey’s intelligence agency, known as MIT, warned the IRGC that Kurdish fighters were trying to cross the Iran-Iraq border.
The Iranian official said clashes also broke out after the attempt to cross and accused the fighters of trying to exploit the unrest and create further instability.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, around 30 million Kurds live in the Middle East, mainly in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
TRUMP SAYS IRAN ‘STARTING TO’ CROSS US RED LINES AS PROTESTERS DIE IN GOVERNMENT CRACKDOWN
Kurdish separatists attempted an Iran crossing from Iraq amid protests. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP via Getty Images)
Turkey has designated Kurdish militant groups in northern Iraq as terrorist organizations and has carried out cross-border military operations against them. The Turkish military has also targeted PKK bases in Iraq.
In 2025, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) said it would disarm and end its decades-long battle against Turkey.
Reuters said MIT and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s office did not comment on the Iran crossing, though it warned that any interference in Iran would inflame regional crises.
‘LEAVE IRAN NOW’: US EMBASSY POSTS WARNING TO AMERICANS STILL IN THE COUNTRY
Iranians attend an anti-government protest Jan. 9 in Tehran, Iran. (UGC via AP)
Iranian authorities alleged the fighters were dispatched from Iraq and Turkey and said the Iranian regime has asked both governments to stop any transfer of fighters or weapons into Iran.
The number of deaths during the crackdown on protesters rose to at least 2,571 on Wednesday, accordin g to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had been told the killings had halted, and he believes there is no plan for large-scale executions.
Asked who told him, Trump said they were “very important sources on the other side.”
Iran closed its airspace to most flights Wednesday, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, with the closure lasting a little more than two hours.
Airspace restrictions come amid fears that US President Donald Trump could attack Iran.
Published On 15 Jan 2026
Iran temporarily closed its airspace to most flights amid attack threats by United States President Donald Trump, according to the US aviation authority.
Most flights were prohibited from Iranian airspace between 1:45am and 4:00am local time (22:15 to 00:30 GMT) and again from 4:44 am to 7am (01:14 to 03:30 GMT) on Thursday, according to the notices posted by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
list of 4 itemsend of listRecommended Stories
The restrictions applied to all commercial flights without “prior approval” from Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO), according to the notices.
FlightRadar, an online flight tracking service, showed just three aircraft over Iran as of 6:05am local time, with dozens of planes flying around the country’s borders. Iran’s airspace reopened at about 7am local time.
The FAA and CAO did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The airspace restrictions come amid threats by US President Donald Trump to attack Iran following Tehran’s deadly crackdown on antigovernment protests in the country.
The US and the United Kingdom on Wednesday withdrew a number of military personnel from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned that it would target US forces in the Middle East region if Trump launched an attack.
A number of countries have also issued advisories to their citizens in the region amid fears of escalation.
Trump appeared to lower his rhetoric towards Tehran later on Wednesday, saying he had received assurances from “important sources” that the killings of protesters in Iran had stopped.
Safe Airspace, a website run by the aviation safety organisation OpsGroup, said the airspace closures could signal “further security or military activity” and warned of the “risk of missile launches or heightened air defence, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic”.
In 2020, Iran’s air defences shot down a Ukraine International Airlines flight shortly after it took off in Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.
A 2021 report by Iran’s CAO concluded that the missile battery’s operator had misidentified the Ukrainian aircraft as a “hostile object”, and that officials had not properly evaluated the risks to commercial planes amid tensions with the US.
Minneapolis, MN21 seconds ago
Photos capture new protests after second ICE shooting in Minneapolis
Indianapolis, IN6 minutes ago
City-County Councilor Vop Osili announces 2027 Indianapolis mayoral bid
Pittsburg, PA12 minutes ago
Pittsburgh permitting problems | How one daycare had to struggle to reopen its playground
Augusta, GA18 minutes ago
Drive-thru flu-shot clinic taking place today in Augusta
Washington, D.C24 minutes ago
House Passes Bill To Keep Blocking Washington, D.C. From Legalizing Marijuana Sales – Marijuana Moment
Florida1 year ago
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Connecticut2 years ago
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
Oregon2 years ago
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
Virginia1 year ago
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Education2 years ago
Video: ‘It Didn’t Have to Happen This Way:’ U.Va. Faculty Call for Review of Police Response to Protests
Politics7 hours ago
Hochul endorses legislation to allow New Yorkers to sue ICE agents: ‘Power does not justify abuse’
World9 hours ago
Iran reopens airspace after closure to most flights amid US attack threats
News9 hours ago
Trump says he’s been assured Tehran has stopped killing protesters as Iran reopens its airspace – live
Politics20 hours ago
Republicans light cigars, cigarettes on burning photos of Khamenei to show support for Iranian protesters
World21 hours ago
EU Parliament questions defence loan’s ‘€17 billion gift’ to Hungary
-
Montana5 days agoService door of Crans-Montana bar where 40 died in fire was locked from inside, owner says
-
Technology1 week agoPower bank feature creep is out of control
-
Delaware6 days agoMERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach
-
Dallas, TX7 days agoAnti-ICE protest outside Dallas City Hall follows deadly shooting in Minneapolis
-
Education1 week agoVideo: This Organizer Reclaims Counter Space
-
Virginia5 days agoVirginia Tech gains commitment from ACC transfer QB
-
Iowa1 week agoPat McAfee praises Audi Crooks, plays hype song for Iowa State star
-
Montana5 days ago‘It was apocalyptic’, woman tells Crans-Montana memorial service, as bar owner detained