In the United States, one of the bedrock pieces of law on rights for women has been overturned.
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Since the 1970s, abortion has been legal across the country. That country-wide legality was determined by the Supreme Court in the case of Roe v Wade.
But now the Supreme Court - with a conservative majority (politics matters on this court) - has overturned that earlier ruling. It's decided there is no constitutional right to abortion - it is, rather, for individual states to decide.
The country's top judges decided that the previous Roe v Wade decision that allowed abortions performed before a foetus would be viable outside the womb (between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy) was wrongly decided by the court in 1973.
It will be for the states to decide whether abortion is legal, but a number of Republican-ruled ones have indicated they won't permit it.
But there has been some tightening of gun law in the wake of a clutch of mass murders by people who got guns over the counter (the US sometimes seems like another world).
The US House of Representatives passed gun-safety legislation for the first time in three decades, sending it to President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it into law.
It includes provisions that would help states keep guns out of the hands of those deemed to be a danger to themselves or others, and close the so-called 'boyfriend loophole' by blocking gun sales to those convicted of abusing unmarried intimate partners.
But guns - and abortion - remain an utterly divisive issue in America.
Tensions are high in Australia as staffing cuts to independents by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has left the promise of collaborative government uncertain.
The members have been told they would only be able to employ one adviser as part of their staffing allocation in the new parliamentary term, down from the two advisers and two assistant advisers they had under the previous Coalition government.
A join statement from crossbench senators Jacqui Lambie, Tammy Tyrrell, David Pocock, Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Robert, called the decision an attack on democracy.
"This act, at the beginning of this new parliament and new government, has significantly damaged relationships with the crossbench," the statement said.
Public service is also facing a reckoning as the entire intake of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade graduates have been put to work in the passport office to combat record demand.
All in all, it likely won't be the smooth sailing the Labor government hoped for as the honeymoon period is well and truly over.
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