1000s of women march in anti-Trump rallies in cities across US, Europe

Thousands of women have taken part in a protest rally in the US capital of Washington and other major cities across the country to mark the anniversary of women’s anti-Trump march.

The protesters in Washington braved the frigid temperatures on Saturday to express their anger at policies of US President Donald Trump, and demand his impeachment while also calling for support for the rights of immigrants as well as measures to protect the environment.

Similar marches were also held or planned in other large cities throughout the US, including New York City, Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Denver. The protest rallies mark the third year of women’s march on the day after Trump's inauguration in January 2017.

In Washington, crowds of protesters wearing pink hats marched from Freedom Plaza – near the White House -- down Pennsylvania Avenue, advocating for women, immigrants, African Americans and LGBTQ people.

As in the protest rallies in the previous years, demonstrators on Saturday also carried signs about Black Lives Matter, immigration issues, LGBTQ rights, as well as a countless of posters mocking the American president.  

The latest women’s march in the US capital comes just weeks after a record number of newly-elected women from across the country were sworn into the Congress.

Addressing one of the two women’s marches held in New York City, newly-elected Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez insisted that both protest events share the same message. 

"All of these women are coming together in solidarity with each other, to support each other, and to make sure that every single voice is amplified, protected and advanced in the United States of America," she said at the Women’s March Alliance near Central Park, as quoted by CNN.

She was due to also speak at the "Women's Unity Rally" at Foley Square in lower Manhattan later in the day.

Local chapters and organizations also planned to hold marches across the US as another newly-elected Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley was due to address a rally in Boston, organized by March Forward Massachusetts.

The protest march held in Atlanta also included newly-elected female Representative Lucy McBath amid reports that nearly 100,000 people were expected to take part in the Los Angeles march, where actress Jane Fonda and California First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom were to address the protesters.

Meanwhile, the Women's March also spread across the globe on Saturday, as it has in previous years, with mostly female protesters taking to the streets from Geneva to Madrid.

Hundreds of protesters also marched in central London in solidarity with an estimated 90 Women’s Marches worldwide as participants rallied with signs protesting violence against women and policies of austerity.

“Today is about improving the living and working conditions of women,” said Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a lawyer, activist and the organizer of the London march. “On the ground and in the data, it is proven that austerity is disproportionately affecting women, especially vulnerable women.”

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