Last year, Alabama passed a law giving fetuses the right to state-sponsored legal defense when a female under 18 wants to get an abortion. On Thursday night's Daily Show, Jessica Williams took a hard look at the law. In typical Daily Show fashion, Williams spoke with both sides of the issue — Julian McPhillips, a lawyer who acts as "guardian ad litem" for the fetus in abortion cases, and Susan Watson, the executive director of Alabama's ACLU chapter, which is suing Alabama to overturn the law.

Still, it's pretty clear what side The Daily Show comes down on. And the way Williams and her guests lay out the law and its consequences.... well, judge for yourself below. —Peter Weber

Europe's borderless travel suffered yet another blow Monday when Sweden and Denmark increased border security amid a historic surge in refugees fleeing conflict in the Middle East. For the first time in what The New York Times reports is "more than half a century," travelers entering Sweden from Denmark will be required to show a photo ID. Denmark will also now require travelers from Germany to show a valid passport upon entering the country, a first since the countries entered Europe's Schengen Area in 2001.

The move, which The New York Times reports comes amid heightened concerns about the "economic and security risks posed by the tide of migration," comes as a surprise — and a source of contention — as both Scandinavian countries have long been known for welcoming refugees. Former Swedish Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt panned the move, which will add an additional hurdle for migrants seeking asylum, as a "dark day for our Nordic region."

Sweden's new legislation is valid for three years, while Denmark's is in place for 10 days with the possibility of renewal for another 20 days. Becca Stanek

The armed men who have seized the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside of Burns, Oregon, aren't fighting a local fight. Most residents of the area are reportedly angry and worried about the occupation, which, among other things, has delayed the start of school for at least a week. The two ranchers the mostly out-of-state occupiers purport to be standing up for, Dwight Hammond Jr. and son Steven, distanced themselves from the militants and plan to report to prison on Monday, as ordered by a federal judge.

Even Cliven Bundy, the anti-government Nevada rancher whose sons are leading the occupation, said he's not sure about his sons meddling in local affairs. "I think of it this way," he told Oregon Public Broadcasting: "What business does the Bundy family have in Harney County, Oregon?"

But while Harney County, in Eastern Oregon, doesn't support the Bundy militia's tactics or its anti–federal government fervor — about half of the county works for the Bureau of Land Management and other government agencies — lots of the ranchers in the area are frustrated with federal control of much of the land in the area, as this map from The Oregonian's Mark Graves shows (purple is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, orange by the BLM, and blue is private land):

And as NPR explains, the conflict between Western ranchers and the federal government dates back about 150 years, to the 1862 Homestead Act, which offered 160 acres to settlers who agreed to make those parcels their home. Unlike the South and Midwest, ranchers in the arid West couldn't profitably support a herd of cattle on 160 acres, so they started leasing land from the federal government, putting much of their livelihood under federal rules. You can learn more about the seeds of the Oregon conflict in this NPR segment about the 2014 standoff between the BLM and Cliven Bundy. Peter Weber

On Monday Donald Trump released the first television advertisement of his presidential campaign, part of his 2016 vow to spend at least $2 million on ads every week. The 30-second ad, set to start airing in Iowa and New Hampshire Tuesday, kicks off with digs at Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and quickly moves into immigration and ISIS. "He'll quickly cut the head off ISIS and take their oil," the ad says, reiterating Trump's plans for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. "until we can figure out what's going on." And "he’ll stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for," the commercial says.

Trump says he currently has "six to eight ads in production and that his was a 'major buy and it's going to go on for months,'" The Washington Post reports. The Post reports that until now, Trump had only purchased radio spots. "But I don't want to take any chances," Trump said, "and I almost felt guilty not spending money."

Watch the ad on Trump's website here. Becca Stanek

Saudi Arabia's execution Saturday of 47 people, notably Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, sparked a furious reaction from Iran, including threats from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the torching of the Saudi embassy in Tehran by angry protesters. Saudi Arabia responded by severing diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, with Bahrain following suit on Monday. This is a new low in the already rocky relations between the two regional powers, Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, but if Iran is angry over the execution of what appears to be a political prisoner, it would seem to have little moral ground from which to criticize.

Iran isn't the only one that thinks the execution was wrong; Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia's executions of 47 prisoners shows its "utter disregard for human rights and life," and that Nimr in particular was "convicted after a political and grossly unfair trial." But in July, the human rights group had harsher words for Iran, saying the Islamic Republic had "executed an astonishing 694 people" in the first six months of 2015.

"Iran's staggering execution toll for the first half of this year paints a sinister picture of the machinery of the state carrying out premeditated, judicially sanctioned killings on a mass scale," Amnesty International's Said Boumedouha said at the time. "If Iran's authorities maintain this horrifying execution rate we are likely to see more than 1,000 state-sanctioned deaths by the year's end." The group hasn't updated its capital punishment tally for Iran yet, but even in 2014, Iran executed at least three times the number of prisoners as the Saudis, according to this tally from Statista:

China has not officially weighed in on Nirm's execution, except to deplore how "the relevant event may intensify conflict in the region." Peter Weber

China started the global New Year with some bad economic news on Monday — weaker-than-forecast manufacturing activity and a currency devaluation — prompting a sharp decline in mainland Chinese equities. Trading was halted for the day on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets after the Shanghai Composite Index plummeted 7 percent, triggering a "circuit breaker" mechanism China put in place late last year. The Chinese data, mixed with rising tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, pushed European and other Asian stock markets lower on Monday.

"A fall in Chinese markets has brought about a jittery start to the year," Investec economists said in a note. Japan's Nikkei 225 closed down 3.1 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed down 2.7 percent, and in Europe, Germany's DAX led regional losses, dropping 3.3 percent in early trading. The 10th consecutive month of contraction in China's factory purchasing indicated to investors that China's economy is not responding to government stimulus efforts, which is bad news for other nations' exports. Peter Weber

If social media is any barometer then the militia faction that has occupied the headquarters of the federal Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in rural Eastern Oregon is earning more mockery for its standoff than converts to the cause. First, Twitter users rallied around the hashtag #YallQaeda, then patted themselves on the back for linking the gang of occupiers — led by Ammon Bundy and other figures from the 2014 armed confrontation at the Nevada ranch of tax scofflaw Cliven Bundy — to Al Qaeda.

Then, Twitter split, perhaps because "Y'all" is more a Southern thing than a Western one or perhaps because the Islamic State is more relevant today than Al Qaeda, or maybe just because, as Wait Wait Don't Tell Me host Peter Sagal suggests, #VanillaISIS is simply funnier:

Many tweeters didn't feel the need to choose:

And then the creative, snarky floodgates opened:

#VanillaISIS waging #YeeHawd is a pretty strong show of contempt, especially toward Malheur occupier Jon Ritzheimer, one of the organizers of last year's Muslim-baiting "Draw Prophet Muhammad" cartoon contests. But surely the internet can come up with something more apt for a group of armed men that so hate the idea of public land that they are willing to occupy the remote office of U.S. Fish and Wildlife workers and thwart bird watchers nationwide for up to a year. Anyone? Peter Weber

There's room for everyone in the world of Sanrio, but a strange new character that uses bacon as a blanket and is constantly fatigued could be giving Hello Kitty a run for her money.

Gudetama is a sluggish egg that has become a surprise hit for the company, The Wall Street Journal reports. It has more online followers than any other character, and is Sanrio's foray into the datsuryoku, or "listless," genre. It is often portrayed in cartoons and on products as a fried egg, but also appears hardboiled and in omelette and custard form. Fan Narumi Wong told WSJ she likes Gudetama because "it's lazy. It's got a market with university students, given we've got a lot of work and sometimes we just want to laze around."

There are 1,700 Gudetama items on shelves in Japan, and they are being snatched up by the character's disciples, like Michelle Wong, who told WSJ the egg's anatomy is what made her a devotee. "The fact that an egg yolk has a butt, I think is just really special, and no one has ever heard of it," she said. Catherine Garcia