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A pregnant American woman who suffered heavy bleeding while on holiday on Malta but was denied an abortion has flown to Spain where she is “out of harm’s way”, her partner said Friday.

Andrea Prudente, 38, and Jay Weeldreyer, 45, were told their baby had no chance of surviving, but doctors refused to intervene despite her fear of deadly infection due to Malta’s total ban on terminations.

“Medical evacuation got us safely to Spain where Andrea is out of harm’s way and finally receiving the medical care and treatment denied her in Malta,” Weeldreyer said in a text message to AFP.

Asked how they were feeling, he said: “Relief. And the sudden, smashing waves of grief at losing our little girl. 

“We’ve been so consumed with fear and intense focus on Andrea’s safety, that now she’s finally out of harm’s way, there are cascades of mixed emotions that just come in waves.”

In an interview by telephone on Wednesday with AFP, he had condemned the “callous” and “cruel” treatment of Prudente, after she was rushed to hospital during a “babymoon” holiday to the Mediterranean island.

She had suffered heavy bleeding in her 16th week of pregnancy and later her waters broke, with an ultrasound showing a partially detached placenta, he said.

An ultrasound two days later showed no amniotic fluid left, meaning the foetus had “no chance of survival”, according to a doctor with campaign group Doctors for Choice, which was involved with the case.

But doctors had refused to intervene, waiting for Prudente to miscarry naturally, for the baby’s heartbeat to stop or “for her to have a life-threating infection” that would spur them to act, Weeldreyer had explained.

He feared she would not survive if she developed sepsis, saying they were “playing chicken with the death of the mother”.

The couple’s lawyer, Lara Dimitrijevic, posted on social media that Prudente was “weak and exhausted, relieved and grieving”.

The case made headlines around the world as evidence of the intransigence of the law in Malta, the only country in the European Union to have a total ban on abortion.

Women who have abortions face a maximum of three years in prison, while doctors who help them face up to four years, campaigners say.

Doctors for Choice welcomed the fact that Prudente had been able to finally receive help in Spain, saying she was given abortion pills.

But it said many Maltese women did not have that option.

“Are we really prioritising women’s lives, or are we treating them merely as incubators? We can do much better than this as a country,” it said.

US lawmakers were expected to break a decades-long stalemate with the passage of a limited package on firearms safety Friday, in a watershed week for gun control after the Supreme Court bolstered the right to carry weapons in public.

The highest judicial body in the United States struck down a century-old New York law Thursday that required a person to prove they had a self-defense need for a permit to carry a concealed handgun outside the home.

Hours later, the Senate defied the odds to pass a bipartisan gun bill, with 15 Republicans crossing the aisle to join all 50 Democrats in the first significant piece of legislation to regulate firearms since 1994.

The legislation includes enhanced background checks for younger gun buyers and federal cash for states introducing “red flag” laws that allow courts to temporarily remove guns from those considered a threat.

Billions of dollars have been allocated to crack down on “straw purchasers” who buy firearms for people who are not allowed them and to curb gun trafficking.

Gun control is a touchstone issue for both conservatives and liberals that has consumed Washington amid daily mass shootings in recent years.

The issue was reignited by two massacres in May that saw 10 Black supermarket shoppers gunned down in upstate New York and 21 people, mostly young children, slain at a school in Texas.

A vote to rubber-stamp the 80-page package is expected around midday (1600 GMT) in the House, where Democrats have a 220-210 margin and could afford to lose just four votes if they face a united opposition.

In reality, a handful of Republicans are expected to defy their leader Kevin McCarthy to cross the aisle and approve the measure.

– ‘Long-sought triumph’ –

Democrats and some gun rights activists have voiced disappointment at the modest scope of the legislation, which doesn’t include universal background checks and omits any ban on semi-automatic weapons or high-capacity magazines.

The Supreme court voted along party lines, with the six Republican appointees in favor of bolstering the constitutional right to bear arms and the three Democratic appointees dissenting.

The ruling was hailed by campaigners for boosted gun rights, but took the shine off what was expected to be a day of celebration for weapons control activists.

“This decision won’t stop our grassroots army from doing what we’ve done for a decade: fighting to keep our families safe,” added Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. 

“Just as we’re breaking the logjam in Congress, we’re going to work day-in, day-out to mitigate the fallout in New York and any other states impacted by this decision and elect gun-sense lawmakers up and down the ballot.”

Eric Tirschwell, chief litigation counsel at Everytown Law, said the Supreme Court had misapplied fundamental constitutional principles, and said the group was “ready to go to court” to defend restrictions

Top Republicans celebrated the court’s decision.

“This is not just a long-sought triumph for lawful gun owners across America, it is a victory for all citizens and our constitutional order itself,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

McCarthy hailed the ruling as a victory that “rightfully ensures the right of all law-abiding Americans to defend themselves without unnecessary government interference.” 

“The decision comes at an important time — as the Senate considers legislation that undermines Second Amendment freedom,” Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president, said in a statement.

“This decision unequivocally validates the position of the NRA and should put lawmakers on notice: no law should be passed that impinges this individual freedom.”

The US Supreme Court on Friday ended the right to abortion in a seismic ruling that shreds half a century of constitutional protections on one of America’s most divisive and bitterly fought issues.

The conservative-dominated court overturned the landmark 1973 “Roe v. Wade” decision that enshrined a woman’s right to an abortion, saying that individual states can now permit or restrict the procedure themselves.

“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion,” the court said. “The authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”

Hundreds of people — some shedding tears of joy and others weeping with grief — gathered outside the fenced-off Supreme Court, where security was tightened ahead of the ruling.

“It’s hard to imagine living in a country that does not respect women as human beings and their right to control their bodies,” said Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat, 49, a mother of two daughters who was choking back tears.

But Gwen Charles, a 21-year-old opponent of abortion, was jubilant.

“This is the day that we have been waiting for,” she told AFP. “We get to usher in a new culture of life in the United States.”

The Supreme Court ruling will likely set into motion a cavalcade of new laws in roughly half of the 50 US states that will severely restrict or outright ban and criminalize abortions, forcing women to travel long distances to states that still permit the procedure.

In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said Roe v. Wade was “egregiously wrong.”

“Abortion presents a profound moral issue on which Americans hold sharply conflicting views,” he said. “The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion.”

The ruling represents a victory of 50 years of struggle against abortion by the religious right — with campaigners now expected to keep pushing for an outright nationwide ban.

The court tossed out the legal argument in Roe v. Wade that women had the right to abortion based on the constitutional right to privacy over their own bodies.

Alito’s opinion largely mirrors his draft opinion that was the subject of an extraordinary leak in early May, sparking demonstrations around the country, with an armed man arrested this month near the home of conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh.

– ‘Never stop fighting’ –

Planned Parenthood, the leading abortion provider in the United States, vowed following the ruling to “never stop fighting” for those in need.

“We know you may be feeling a lot of things right now — hurt, anger, confusion. Whatever you feel is OK. We’re here with you — and we’ll never stop fighting for you,” the organization tweeted.

Former Democratic president Barack Obama denounced the ruling, saying “it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues — attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.”

But former Republican vice president Mike Pence, a leading anti-abortion campaigner, welcomed it, saying the US right to abortion has been consigned to the “ash heap of history.”

“This Supreme Court has righted a historic wrong,” Pence said.

The three liberal justices on the court dissented from the ruling — which came a day after the court ushered in a major expansion of gun rights in the country.

“Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens,” they said.

The court’s ruling goes against an international trend of easing abortion laws, including in such countries as Ireland, Argentina, Mexico and Colombia where the Catholic Church continues to wield considerable influence.

– ‘Trigger laws’ –

The ruling was made possible by the nomination of three conservative justices to the court by former Republican president Donald Trump — Neil Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

The case before the court was a Mississippi law that would restrict abortion to 15 weeks but while hearing the case in December several justices indicated they were prepared to go further.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, 13 states have adopted so-called “trigger laws” that will ban abortion virtually immediately.

Ten others have pre-1973 laws that could go into force or legislation that would ban abortion after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.

Women living in states with strict anti-abortion laws will either have to continue with their pregnancy, undergo a clandestine abortion or obtain abortion pills, or travel to another state where the procedure remains legal.

Several Democratic-ruled states, anticipating an influx, have taken steps to facilitate abortion and clinics have also shifted their resources.

Travel is expensive, however, and abortion rights groups say any new restrictions will severely impact poor women, many of whom are Black or Hispanic.

Ukrainian forces will retreat from Severodonetsk after weeks of fierce fighting over the key city, a senior Ukrainian official said Friday, in a major boost to Russia’s goal of seizing a swathe of eastern Ukraine. 

The announcement came shortly after the European Union granted Ukraine candidate status in a show of support for the former Soviet republic, although there is still a long path ahead to membership.

Russia has focused its offensive on the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine after being repelled from the capital Kyiv and other areas following the February invasion. Its forces have gradually made progress despite encountering fierce resistance and sustaining heavy losses. 

The strategically important industrial hub of Severodonetsk has been the scene of weeks of street battles as the outgunned Ukrainians put up a stubborn defence.

But Sergiy Gaiday, the governor of the Lugansk region which includes Severodonetsk, said that Ukrainian military forces in the city had received an order to withdraw. 

“Remaining in positions that have been relentlessly shelled for months just doesn’t make sense,” he said on Telegram, adding that 90 percent of the city had been damaged. 

The Ukrainians had already been pushed back from much of the city, leaving them in control of only industrial areas. 

Capturing Severodonetsk and its twin city of Lysychansk would give the Russians control of Lugansk, and allow them to push further into the wider Donbas.

– Lysychansk under fire –

Gaiday said the Russians were now advancing on Lysychansk, which has been facing increasingly heavy Russian bombardment. 

The situation for those that remain in the city is bleak.

Liliya Nesterenko said her house had no gas, water or electricity and she and her mother were cooking on a campfire. She was cycling along the street, and had come out to feed a friend’s pets. 

But the 39-year-old was upbeat about the city’s defences: “I believe in our Ukrainian army, they should (be able to) cope.”

A representative of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine earlier told AFP that the resistance by Ukrainian forces trying to defend Lysychansk and Severodonetsk was “pointless and futile”.

“At the rate our soldiers are going, very soon the whole territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic will be liberated,” said Andrei Marochko, a spokesman for the Moscow-backed army of Lugansk.

On Friday, Marochko said on Telegram that all the villages in the neighbouring areas of Zolote and Hirske were now under the control of Russian or pro-Russian forces.

In a video on Marochko’s Telegram channel, a man in military clothing can be seen replacing the Ukrainian flag with the Zolote coat of arms with a hammer-and-sickle red flag. 

Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that up to 2,000 people were “completely blocked” near Zolote and Hirske, and that around half of Zolote was under Russian control.

– Missiles hit university –

Russia has also intensified its offensive in the northern city of Kharkiv in the past few days. 

An AFP team at the scene heard strong explosions in the city centre last night and in the morning saw that the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute had been hit by missiles, breaking windows and causing its roof to partially collapse. 

According to an unidentified military official at the scene, the Russians “thought there might be something military in there but there was not”. 

In the southern Kherson region, a Moscow-appointed official was killed by an explosive device planted in his car, Russian news agencies reported.

The Moscow-appointed deputy head of Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, said the regional head of the department of family, youth and sports had died “as a result of a terrorist act”.

It was the first confirmed death of a pro-Russian official during a string of attacks on pro-Kremlin officials in Ukrainian regions under Russian control.

With Ukraine pleading for accelerated weapon deliveries, the United States announced it was sending another $450 million in fresh armaments, including HIMARS rocket systems, which can launch multiple missiles at extended range. 

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter that Ukraine was “grateful” to US President Joe Biden for the decision.

“This support… is now more important than ever,” he said.

– ‘Future equal EU partner’ –

At a Brussels summit Thursday, EU leaders granted candidate status to Ukraine, as well as Moldova.

Zelensky hailed the news as “a unique and historic moment”. 

“Today it is recognised that Ukraine is not a bridge, not a pillow between the West and Russia, not a buffer between Europe and Asia, not a sphere of influence,” Zelensky said in a video address to Ukrainians on Friday. 

“Ukraine is a future equal partner for at least 27 EU countries,” he added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Ukraine’s new EU candidacy status as a “domestic European affair”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has strongly resisted what Moscow sees as attempts to bring the country into NATO. 

But Ukraine’s NATO aspirations are far from being realised and EU membership is at least years away.

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One of the last Afghan detainees held inside the Guantanamo Bay US detention centre in Cuba has been freed after 15 years following negotiations with Washington, his family and Taliban authorities said Friday.

The secretive prison once housed hundreds of suspected militants captured by US forces during America’s “war on terror”, many held without charge or the legal power to challenge their detention.

US authorities faced accusations of torture and abuse against prisoners at the facility, with some allegedly held in cages and subjected to illegal interrogation techniques.

Most of the inmates have been released over the years, including senior Taliban leaders, but Asadullah Haroon had languished without charge.

“The charges against him were false and the release has proved that he was innocent, but who will return those years of his life?” said his brother Roman Khan from Peshawar in Pakistan, where the family live as refugees.

He said they were informed early Friday of Haroon’s freedom.

“It’s like Eid in our house, like a wedding. These are very emotional moments for us,” Khan told AFP.

Haroon, believed to be aged around 40, is now in Qatar. He was arrested by US forces in 2006 while working as a honey trader travelling between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The US government transferred him in 2007 to Guantanamo Bay, accusing him of being a courier linked to Al Qaeda and serving as a commander with another militant group, Hezb-i-Islami.

His family, who fled to Pakistan during the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, have admitted he was a Hezb-i-Islami member like many in their refugee camp, but said he had no links with Al Qaeda.

His release came after “direct and positive” interaction between the Taliban and Washington, Afghanistan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

Mujahid said Haroon was one of two Afghan detainees remaining in Guantanamo Bay.

The other inmate is Muhammad Rahim, accused by the CIA of being a close associate of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.

US President Joe Biden’s administration has been working to reduce the number of detainees and eventually shut down Guantanamo Bay, which lies on the island of Cuba but is under US jurisdiction.

The Pentagon in April said 37 detainees remained at the sprawling facility.