government

The five things you need to know about politics today

The Alabama Senate passed a bill which close to bans abortion in the state, making the procedure only available if a woman’s health is at serious risk. The punishment for doctors performing abortions is 99 years or life in prison. Senators rejected an exception for rape and incest. The bill has been written with such strong terms so that it will be challenged and pushed to the Supreme Court. Since the swearing in of Brett Kavanaugh the bench of judges has a conservative majority. The Supreme Court ruled that abortion was legal across the country in the landmark Roe v Wade case in 1975. Bills like this seek to overturn that ruling, to give states the right to decide their own abortion laws.

The five things you need to know about politics today

The “discriminatory” cap targets the wrong people, campaigners say.

The bill, which will now go to the state governor's desk, would ban abortion in almost all cases.

Ten years after austerity measures were put in place in the UK, the government has finally reported a small budget surplus. The huge debts incurred after bailing out banks during the 2008 global financial crisis led to an emergency budget which massively reduced government spending. But homelessness, child poverty and reliance on food banks have increased. In this episode of The Breakdown By HuffPost, we explore if austerity measures were a temporary and necessary financial tool to bring the country back from the edge of bankruptcy, or a new mindset of how the government funds social spending like housing, welfare and schooling. If the employment rate is at a 44-year low, why are people doing so badly under austerity Britain?