WASHINGTON: The Latest on the Women’s March on Washington and associated protests around the world (all times EST):
2:50 p.m.
The tens of thousands of people who turned out for the women’s march in Chicago have spilled into the city’s downtown streets.
Officially, organizers canceled the march portion of the Chicago rally due to overwhelming turnout.
But after the event concluded in Grant Park, people began flooding nearby streets, chanting and waving signs protesting President Donald Trump.
A massive turnout also affected the plans at the march in Washington, where so many people packed the original route along the south side of the National Mall that organizers couldn’t lead a formal trek toward White House.
Interim D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham says on Independence Avenue, “The crowd stretches so far that there’s no room left to march.”
Instead, march organizers directed the crowd to take a new route to meet up at the Ellipse, a grassy area between the Washington Monument and the White House.
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2:20 p.m.
Organizers of the Women’s March on Washington are encouraging attendees to march on their own to the grassy Ellipse near the White House.
The original plan had been for organizers to lead a formal march to the Ellipse, with marchers walking down Independence Avenue along the south side of the National Mall.
But city officials said Saturday that because that route is filled with protesters, a formal march is no longer possible. The crowd of several hundred thousand is still expected to head to the Ellipse.
Organizers are now telling rally-goers from the stage that they should head north toward Constitution Avenue, which runs along the north side of the Mall.
They can then make a right at the Washington Monument to reach the Ellipse.
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1:20 p.m.
A massive turnout at the Women’s March on Washington has forced a change of plans. With the entire planned route filled with hundreds of thousands of protesters, organizers can’t lead a formal march toward the White House.
That’s according to a District of Columbia official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official isn’t authorized to speak for the march.
The official says that shortly before 1 p.m., people were standing along the entire march route.
While there will be no formal march led from the protest stage near the Capitol, the crowd is still expected to move toward the Ellipse, an area of the National Mall in front of the White House.
The official says there could be more than half a million people on the Mall, but it’s difficult to estimate because low cloud cover is making aerial photographs impossible.
—Ben Nuckols