US Army fires Fort Hood officers and orders policy shift following 25 deaths

Suspensions and demand for changes prompted by widespread pattern of violence, including murder and sexual assault

The US Army has fired or suspended 14 officers and enlisted soldiers at its Fort Hood, Texas, base and ordered policy changes to address chronic failures of leadership that contributed to a widespread pattern of violence, including murder, sexual assault and harassment.

In a sweeping condemnation of Fort Hood’s command hierarchy, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy fired three top commanders and suspended two others pending a further investigation.

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‘What he was doing was in plain sight’: more ex-models accuse Gérald Marie of sexual assault

Exclusive: Another seven women come forward with allegations about the former Elite boss

Seven more women have come forward to accuse the former model agency boss Gérald Marie of sexual misconduct, adding to mounting allegations that have drawn parallels with the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Last month a Guardian investigation revealed that nine women had made sexual misconduct allegations against Marie, who for three decades was one of the most powerful men in the fashion industry.

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When it comes to a family trauma, who gets to tell the story?

When Fariha Róisín started writing Like a Bird, she thought the traumatic event at its heart was just a dream. She explores the weight of a family secret

In her 1861 account Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs exposed her sexual abuse by her master with lucidity and truth. Yet for more than 100 years, it was accepted academic opinion that Incidents was a novel, written by white abolitionist Lydia Maria Child. It was not until the 1980s that critic Jean Fagan Yellin proved Jacobs to be the true author; Incidents had been autobiographical all along.

In Hollywood, rape narratives are largely penned by men and seen as a motif, because the tension (and tragedy) of the experience creates sympathy, compassion; it formalises emotion. When we see a woman raped and abused on film we absolve ourselves for watching, because we want to understand the ugliness of human atrocity, or so that’s what we say. And when women write about rape, often in literature, its seen as melodramatic, overemotional, too impossible to be true. “Primarily, rape is considered a women’s issue, though this is, of course, hardly the case,” writes poet Moniza Alvi, in the introduction to Feminism, Literature and Rape Narratives, “and perhaps this is partly why it is considered a literary taboo, particularly when conveyed from a female viewpoint.”

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PNG police chief raises fears officers may have been raping women inside station

New provincial commander says he is concerned by allegations of rape and sexual assault by officers in Alotau Town

Two policemen have been charged with rape allegedly committed inside a police station in Alotau Town, in Papua New Guinea’s south-east, but the city’s most senior officer said he fears others sexual assaults may have been committed by police, with victims too afraid to report attacks.

“I can honestly say that this practice may have been going on for a while,” Milne Bay provincial police commander Peter Barkie told the Guardian. “I’ve heard about it but since taking office I can only confirm two [alleged] cases, who were charged during my time.”

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‘Lack of shame’: Robinho affair highlights Brazil’s rape crisis

Top club Santos signed a contract – now suspended – with the former Brazil striker who was convicted of rape in Italy in 2017

A public debate over sexual violence and rape culture has erupted in Brazil after one of its leading football clubs tried to recruit a convicted rapist to lead its attack.

Santos Futebol Clube – which has produced sporting legends including Pelé and Neymar – announced the highly controversial signing of the former Manchester City striker Robinho on 10 October.

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To tackle sexual violence in Bangladesh the culture of victim blaming must end

There are still those who ask ‘what was she wearing’. An urgent conversation is needed about toxic masculinity and consent

There has been growing outrage among Bangladeshi citizens over the past two weeks at a string of gruesome gang rapes and sexual assaults reported in the media. There is a deep lack of confidence that the victims will ever get justice, as well as anxiety over the traditionally-held view that a woman and her family lose “honour” when she is raped.

The question remains: did the woman ask to hold this honour that has been bestowed upon her? Is a woman’s honour held in her body? According to Ain O Salish Kendra, an organisation in Bangladesh that provides legal assistance to victims of violence, between January and September this year, men raped 975 women, killed 43 women after raping them, and attempted to rape 204 others. This is not the actual number of rape cases, but the figure that has been reported publicly – the true toll will be a lot higher.

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Linda Evangelista praises women accusing her ex-husband of rape

Exclusive: supermodel speaks out after four more women accuse Gérald Marie of sexual misconduct

The supermodel Linda Evangelista has praised the “courage and strength” shown by a growing number of women accusing her ex-husband, the model agency boss Gérald Marie, of sexual misconduct and rape.

Speaking exclusively to the Guardian’s Weekend magazine, Evangelista said she believed the women’s accounts of their experiences with Marie, who for over three decades was among the most powerful figures in the fashion industry.

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Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein facing six new sexual assault charges

The disgraced film mogul, who is serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape, is accused of alleged LA attacks between 2004 and 2010

Harvey Weinstein, the convicted rapist and imprisoned film mogul, is facing six new sexual assault charges, prosecutors in Los Angeles announced on Friday.

Weinstein, 68, was charged with three additional forcible rape felonies and three forcible oral copulation charges stemming from alleged attacks between 2004 and 2010 in Beverly Hills. The new criminal complaint expands the LA case to a total of five victims, authorities said.

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Ex-BBC presenter and pastor jailed for 10 years for prolific sexual abuse

Benjamin Thomas pleaded guilty to 40 offences over 30 years, mainly against teenage boys

A former pastor and BBC television presenter has been jailed for 10 years and four months after he admitted abusing boys and men over almost three decades.

Ben Thomas, 44, carried out many of his attacks while his victims were sleeping at Christian camps and conferences, Mold crown court in north Wales heard.

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DRC protesters demand justice over unprosecuted rapes and murders

Women lead protests against conflict violence in Democratic Republic of the Congo, amid calls for action on hundreds of civil war crimes

Women led thousands of people in demonstrations in four cities across the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday, demanding justice for historic murders and rapes committed in the east of the country.

Organisers said police beat protesters in Kisangani, one of the cities, as they marked a decade since the UN documented hundreds of crimes in DRC between 1993 and 2003 that have not been prosecuted.

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Tunisia president calls for return of death penalty following brutal killing

Human rights campaigners warn reinstating capital punishment ‘would be a huge step backwards’, as attack on young woman reignites debate

The brutal killing of a young woman has reignited a debate in Tunisia over capital punishment, with the country’s president suggesting an end to a decades-old moratorium on the death penalty.

President Kais Saied told a meeting of the country’s national security council on Monday that “murder deserves the death penalty” and urged the security forces to redouble their efforts in countering what he characterised as a nationwide increase in crime.

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‘I feel sick, violated’: former model alleges sexual assault by Donald Trump – video

Amy Dorris alleges she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump in 1997, when she was 24. Speaking publicly about the alleged incident for the first time, the former model claims Trump grabbed her as she came out of the bathroom of his VIP box at the US Open tennis event, forced his tongue down her throat and held her in a grip from which she could not escape. Trump's lawyers said he denied in the strongest possible terms having ever harassed, abused or behaved improperly toward Dorris

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Dalits bear brunt of India’s ‘endemic’ sexual violence crisis

Girls in Uttar Pradesh targeted in assaults aiming to reinforce caste and gender hierarchies, say activists

A spate of brutal rapes and murders of young girls in a single district of India over the past month has provoked outrage and exposed the ongoing use of sexual violence as a tool of oppression and revenge against lower caste communities.

Over the past month, the Lakhimpur Kheri district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has witnessed four incidents of girls being raped and brutally murdered. At least two of the girls were Dalits, the lowest caste in the Hindu system of social hierarchy, who were previously referred to as “untouchables” and cast out from society.

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Backlash in Pakistan as police appear to blame woman for gang rape

Investigator says woman raped in front of her children shouldn’t have driven alone

The gang-rape of a woman in front of her children after her car broke down on a motorway has prompted outrage and protests in Pakistan, with anger further fuelled by police, who appeared to blame the victim for travelling alone.

Fifteen people have been arrested in connection with the gang-rape, which happened at about 1.30am by the side of a motorway in Lahore.

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Denmark announces plans to reform sexual violence laws

The government plan to make consent rather violence the basis for determining rape

The Danish government has announced plans to reform sexual violence laws to make consent rather than violence the basis for determining rape.

“We are moving from a system where there had to be coercion and violence for it to be rape, to one where there must be consent,” justice minister, Nick Haekkerup, told a press conference.

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Social media users inspire outrage against Egypt’s alleged sexual abusers

Survivors who say alleged assailants go unpunished have begun publicly shaming them online

Egypt is witnessing a wave of online outrage targeting rape culture and sexual assault, as survivors use social media to shame alleged abusers and demand change.

A growing number of social media accounts gather survivors’ testimony and attempt to shame alleged attackers, angry at elite perpetrators they say routinely go unpunished.

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Ghislaine Maxwell: lawyers ask judge to stop accusers from posting evidence online

Lawyers don’t want women who claim Maxwell abused them to use evidence from criminal case to boost lawsuits by posting online

Lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell asked a judge to stop her accusers from using evidence in the criminal case to boost civil lawsuits by posting materials to the internet.

The lawyers say attorneys for women who claim Maxwell recruited and abused them should be subject to the same secrecy rules as prosecutors and Maxwell’s defense lawyers.

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Fox News hit by new claims of stars’ sexual misconduct in lawsuit

  • Ex-correspondent Ed Henry accused of rape and sexual assault
  • Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity face sexual harassment claim

Two women have come forward with explosive new allegations of sexual misconduct at Fox News, claiming in a lawsuit that the former chief national correspondent of the cable channel, Ed Henry, subjected one of them to rape and sexual assault.

The federal lawsuit, lodged on Monday in the southern district of New York, accuses management at Fox News of failing to act over allegations of sexual impropriety against Henry dating back to as early as 2017. The channel fired its co-anchor earlier this month after details of the complaint surfaced.

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Paraguay: indigenous girl’s murder fires public outrage at child sexual abuse

The conservative South American country has high levels of sexual violence against minors and a shocking child pregnancy rate

Human rights activists in Paraguay have led a wave of fierce public indignation after a series of alarming cases in which sexual violence towards young girls has culminated in murder and child pregnancy.

The highly conservative South American country has long struggled with high levels of sexual violence towards children.

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Netflix stands by hit film 365 Days despite Duffy’s sex trafficking criticism

Streaming platform says it is giving viewers ‘more choice’ after British singer accuses film of glamourising rape

Netflix will continue to stream hit Polish film 365 Days despite calls for its withdrawal, including by British singer Duffy, who accused it of glamourising rape and sex trafficking.

The Welsh singer-songwriter wrote an open letter to the Netflix chief executive, Reed Hastings, raising her concerns about the film based on a bestselling Polish book trilogy by Blanka Lipińska.

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