The big interview: Bernie optimistic about resistance

• Bernie Sanders has warned that Donald Trump is aiming to move the US “towards authoritarianism”, in an interview with the Guardian.

Sanders said Trump’s mistruths and attacks on the media are not accidental: “He lies in order to undermine the foundations of American democracy.”

But Sanders expressed optimism over the resistance, and issued a rallying cry to those who might feel scared by Trump’s rule. “These are very difficult and frightening times,” Sanders said. “But also understand that in moments of crisis what has happened, time and time again, is that people have stood up and fought back. So despair is absolutely not an option.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Despair: not an option. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

This week in the resistance

• People around the world took part in a mass international women’s strike – dubbed “A Day Without a Woman” – on Wednesday. But how much impact did the protest have? The feminist writer Maureen Shaw pointed out that most women are unable to take impromptu days off, and said future action should be designed to have a more tangible impact.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protestors send love from Los Angeles on Wednesday. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Up next...

• The American Civil Liberties Union has told the Guardian about its plans to thwart Trump by creating “freedom cities” across the US.

Faiz Shakir, national political director at the ACLU, said cities could use their local authority to resist implementing legislation signed by the Trump administration. The ACLU is encouraging people to meet with local sheriffs or police commissioners to pressure them to act.

The ACLU will officially launch the scheme in a live-streamed broadcast on Saturday. More than 2,300 watch parties have been set up around the country – find local ones here.

What we’re reading

• Republicans’ biggest white lie is that they represent the working class, writes Lucia Graves. In Jason Chaffetz’s much criticized comments suggesting that Americans should choose between healthcare and an iPhone, the Utah congressman was “playing into an old Republican trope that poverty is a choice and that poor people deserve their fate because poverty can be attributed to personal, not systemic, failure”.

• Democrats in Georgia are facing an early test of their ability to translate anti-Trump energy into votes, according to the New York Times. Jon Ossoff, a 30-year-old film-maker, is running for the congressional seat vacated by Tom Price, Trump’s new secretary of health and human services. Part of Ossoff’s pitch? “Make Trump Furious.”



• All the more reason to worry about the “Ryancare” repeal of the Affordable Care Act: the Washingon Post points out that healthcare in the US already lags way behind systems in other “first-world” countries – despite America spending more.

Environmentalists are talking about...

Last year, Scott Pruitt wrote that “scientists continue to disagree” about the extent of climate change, so perhaps we shouldn’t have expected too much from Trump’s new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Scott Pruitt illustrates the impact of carbon dioxide on climate change. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP

But still, Pruitt’s denial that carbon dioxide emissions are a primary cause of global warming – contrary to all available evidence – was quite striking.

As our environment correspondent Oliver Milman notes, this stance actually puts Pruitt at odds with his own agency.

(As an aside, the Guardian asked Trump at a press conference in November 2015 why he himself did not believe in climate change. He wouldn’t answer the question; specifically, his response was: “OK, what else?”)

Photo of the week

The Statue of Liberty went dark on the eve of the Day Without a Woman. Was it coincidence? The NYC parks department said it was. Others thought differently.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest It’s always darkest before the dawn. Photograph: AP

Meme of the week

If you thought – like us – there was nothing new to say about Donald Trump’s hair, you thought wrong. This video of his mane flapping around like the end of a toilet roll took even the most ardent Trump-hair-watchers by surprise.

Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) My life will be defined as before and after i saw this pic.twitter.com/mMMRBtsR6i

People soon noted that Trump’s weave natural head of hair bore similarity to Dobby from Harry Potter, Salacious B Crumb of Star Wars fame, and this image – from the popular sitcom Friends – of Monica with a turkey on her head.



Key dates to watch

• The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office will deliver its verdict on the Republicans’ healthcare bill on Monday. The CBO is assessing the impact and cost of the legislation – something proponents and opponents are sure to seize on.



• Trump’s revised immigration executive order is due to take effect at 12.01am on Thursday 16 March . But a hearing in response to the state of Hawaii’s lawsuit is set for Wednesday, 15 March . A judge could decide to place a nationwide halt on the order.

• The Pennsylvania governor, Tom Wolf, is attending an Indivisible activist event in Philadelphia on Sunday. Indivisible was formed by a group of former Democratic congressional staffers in December, and aims to be a Tea Party of the left.

• Trump is holding a rally in Nashville, T ennessee, on 15 March, perhaps as part of his “full-court press” on healthcare. (The exact details are yet to be confirmed.) Protests are planned.

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