David Sherfinski

As her nonprofit organisation's only full-time staff member, Terra Burman barely has time to study housing and childcare needs in her rural corner of the western U.S. state of Montana - let alone fix them.

Burman, executive director of the Eastern Plains Economic Development Corporation, has tried to team up with other local groups to apply for federal money to assess the scale of such problems, but came up empty.

Robert Parr drove his white pickup truck near a set of new buildings near the beachfront in New Hanover County, North Carolina – an area he says is prone to flooding. 

"That's crazy. That never should have gone in here," he told Context, referring to new development blocks away from the U.S. East Coast.

When Marcus Simon walked into a gun show in Fredericksburg, Virginia, he paid cash for a do-it-yourself firearm kit and walked out - no identification or background check required.

After about 90 minutes of work, Simon – a member of the Virginia House of Delegates - had assembled his own essentially untraceable gun, he said.

Potential wage cuts, paralysed federal politics, and poor morale among firefighters could leave the United States massively under-equipped to combat wildfires in 2024, even as the El Niño phenomenon makes blazes more likely, firefighters say.

On top of these challenges, millions of dollars meant to reduce the risk of wildfires starting in the first place - and to cover the cost of fighting them - are being diverted to shore up wages and encourage skilled personnel to stay in their jobs. 

In Sumit Bhanwala's village in northern India, pictures of the Statue of Liberty adorn facades and tractors display stars and stripes bumper stickers - a way to let neighbours know that sons, brothers and nephews have made it to the United States.

For 25-year-old Bhanwala, the images are a source of inspiration as he prepares for an arduous, months-long journey to sneak across the U.S. border - an odyssey that will cost his family tens of thousands of dollars in fees to people smugglers.

Ending unpaid labour in U.S. prisons could net up to $20 billion a year, new research said on Wednesday, potentially boosting a push to scrap the exception to the abolition of slavery that allows "involuntary servitude" as punishment.

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - passed 159 years ago on Wednesday - abolished slavery except as punishment for crimes. That left the door open, advocates say, for prisons to exploit the cheap or free labour of the incarcerated.

As director of South Carolina's Department of Corrections, Bryan Stirling believes he knows what is needed to make the state's 21 penal institutions safer while also protecting people outside the prison walls.     

Ideally, Stirling would like to have the power to jam phone signals from the state's prisons to tackle the scourge of illegal cellphones being used to facilitate crimes ranging from sex trafficking to murder-for-hire and drug dealing. 

The United States is racing to meet new minimum firefighter staffing levels at its military bases ahead of a Dec. 23 deadline aimed at ensuring stations can protect the nation's defences while keeping firefighters safe, too.

With time ticking down on the Department of Defense (DoD) to act, unions say the federal government is dragging its feet and that lives and property are at risk due to the understaffing.

Abortion was a major flashpoint in 2023, dividing Americans and dominating political debate. Brace for more of the same in 2024, with key election battles and legal landmarks due to determine a woman's right to choose in the U.S. and well beyond.

In the year that Roe v Wade marked its 50th anniversary, pro-abortion Americans scored mixed results in 2023, months after the landmark decision was overturned and moral wrangling over abortion hit fever pitch.

Abortion was a top priority for many voters in this week's U.S. state elections, with supporters of the right to choose extending a string of victories since the Supreme Court last year overturned the constitutional right to end a pregnancy.

Voters in Ohio, which has trended reliably Republican in recent presidential elections, voted by 57% to 43% to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution.