Annalisa Merelli

Sayfullo Saipov, the 29-year-old authorities believe to be responsible of the terrorist attack that killed at least eight in Manhattan, is an immigrant from Uzbekistan who had come to the US through the Diversity Visa (DV) Program. The DV is a unique, lottery-based program that awards 50,000 green cards every year to citizens of countries that are underrepresented in US immigration quotas in the five previous years.

Years before dozens of women accused Harvey Weinstein, media leaders, and Silicon Valley investors of sexual misconduct, shedding light on the culture of harassment and assault in Hollywood and beyond, an African American woman famously had the bravery to speak up, alone, against a powerful predator. And she did it in front of a US Senate commission.

Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign chairman from March to August 2016, was charged by federal authorities today (Oct. 30), in the midst of their investigation of any Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections. The counts against Manafort, which don’t mention Trump or the election, accuse him of using overseas shell companies to funnel money toward purchases of luxury goods and real estate.

For every 100,000 births in the US in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates 17.3 mothers died, the highest maternal mortality rate of all industrialized countries—by several times over. But according to another, better estimate, calculated by a team at the Maryland Population Research Center, 23.5 women died per 100,000 live births that year.

Elizabeth “Liz” Logelin was a young, fit woman with a promising career in operations management at Disney. On March 24, 2008, after a complicated pregnancy that saw her bedridden for nearly two months (three weeks of which were in the hospital), she delivered her daughter Madeline (“Maddy”) through an emergency cesarean section. Two and a half months early, Maddy was healthy, if tiny. Twenty seven hours after the delivery, Liz was finally cleared to hold her firstborn. Her husband Matt Logelin already was, he teased her, several diaper changes ahead of her. She got up from the bed, ready to make her way to the nursery, and stopped in front of the mirror. “My hair looks like shit,” she said, of her long tresses. She laughed, Matt laughed, the nurses laughed. He thought her hair looked great.

After rallying in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August—where a woman was killed in an attack—and going back for a tiki-torch march this month, American white supremacists, xenophobes and anti-Semites have planned yet another demonstration for tomorrow (Oct. 28), this time in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to protest against refugees and immigration policies.

When white supremacist Richard Spencer booked a hall in the University of Florida (UF) to do a speech, the institution—despite its complete condemnation of his racist message—didn’t have a right to refuse him the space. As a public university, UF had to abide by the US constitution’s first amendment, which protects all forms of free speech, including hate speech.

In a wave both disturbing and necessary, sexual assault—an old, pervasive, societal ill—has taken over the news cycle. Dozens of women have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct, more than 200 said filmmaker James Toback harassed them, and fashion photographer Terry Richardson—repeatedly accused of harassment by models he worked with—was finally blacklisted by Condé Nast. Meanwhile, women from all walks of life have shared their own experiences with harassment, assault, and rape.

Jane Doe is a child. At 17, she is considered a minor by US law and international human-rights law. Doe (the name used by the court to process her case) is also an undocumented immigrant from Central America, who is being held in a shelter for unaccompanied minors in Brownsville, Texas run by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland: Several countries in Europe have enforced versions of so-called “burqa bans,” or laws that demand people don’t cover their faces in public situations. Though these laws aren’t explicitly phrased to target Muslims, their perceived aim (and hence nickname) is to prevent Muslim women from covering their faces.

Last week, after a New York Times investigation (paywall) unleashed a storm of sexual harassment accusations against Harvey Weinstein, The New Yorker (paywall) published another investigation, even more damning. In it, women didn’t just accuse Weinstein of harassment—they said he raped them, forcing them to engage in active and passive oral sex. The accounts were the stuff of a Hollywood nightmare: Very young actresses overpowered by a man who held the keys to their professional future, and for years blamed themselves for the crime.

After three years of ISIL reign, and an offensive that took nearly a year, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-led independent militia that has systematically taken on the caliphate in Syria, freed the Syrian city of Raqqa. This is a key victory in the war against ISIL, which had chosen Raqqa as the headquarters from which, since early 2014, the terrorist organization ran its operations.

Reproductive rights might be under attack all over the US thanks to Trump White House policies, but because so many of the regulations on abortions and other reproductive services are ultimately decided at the state and city level, there are significant discrepancies across the country.

White supremacist Richard Spencer is scheduled to speak this Thursday (Oct. 19) afternoon on the University of Florida’s (UF) Gainesville campus. The National Policy Institute, the white supremacist think tank Spencer leads, initially sought to rent space on the UF campus on Sept. 12, shortly after the Charlottesville attack, but the request was denied on the basis that unrest similar to what had just happened in Virginia might also occur in Gainesville, threatening public safety there.

Just over a week ago, Harvey Weinstein was one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers and a big Democratic Party donor. Then on Oct. 5 The New York Times reported that, over decades, he had paid off women who had accused him of sexual harassment. More and more women have come forward, accusing Weinstein of sexual misconduct ranging from forceful unwanted advances to rape.

Since its earliest days, it has been clear that the Trump administration was going to chip away at women’s rights and gender equality. Nine months in, here are some of the things it has done:

This item has been updated to reflect Israel’s announcement that it, too, is leaving UNESCO. 

With the Trump administration’s relentless attack on women’s rights and the repeated reminders that powerful men can get away with sexually harassing women for decades, it might seem reasonable to be pessimistic about women’s and civil rights in America.

Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr is a Democrat who has been New York County’s chief prosecutor since 2008. He is also, at the moment, a very controversial figure.

The sexual harassment and rape allegations against famed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein have been snowballing. On Oct. 5 the New York Times reported (paywall) that several actresses and former colleagues had accused Weinstein of sexual harassment. A follow-up story (paywall) included accusations from stars such as Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow. Today the New Yorker published further allegations, including of rape.

The man known as Dr. Seuss remains one of our most well-known and celebrated children’s book authors. But Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Geisel, wasn’t always sensitive when it came to social issues. Some of his children’s books contain racist depictions of characters, as did cartoons he drew of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina breached the levees and flood walls meant to protect New Orleans, Louisiana—with horrific results. In the following decade, the US Army Corps of Engineers spent $14.5 billion strengthening the city’s protection against hurricanes with flood gates, pumping stations, and barriers.

Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein appears to be the ultimate cliché. The 65-year-old Hollywood producer faces three decades’ worth of sexual harassment allegations from former colleagues, employees, and acquaintances, a New York Times investigation (paywall) reported this week. Even more women have since come forward to share their own deeply troubling encounters with Weinstein.

The Trump administration is progressing in its efforts to limit women’s control over their reproductive cycle. Two days after a bill to ban abortion later than the 20th week of pregnancy passed in the Republican-led House of Representatives, the administration has curtailed women’s access to free contraception.