Women's News: On the stand at Trump's trial

Good evening! Thanks, as always, for reading women’s stories. Here’s what’s on the rise this week:

World

• The Russian Army is trying to enlist women to fill its ranks as the war on Ukraine shows no signs of ending. 

  • The strategy includes recruiting from prisons, where female inmates face harsher conditions and more forced labor than their male counterparts, making the Army an appealing alternative.

  • But these efforts stand at odds with Putin’s conservative social agenda, which has included a historic rollback of women’s rights in the country. The Russian president was inaugurated for a fifth term today.

U.S.

• Anti-war protests have exploded on college campuses across the country. The Guardian profiled two Palestinian women and one Jewish woman at UC San Diego who have found solidarity and understanding amid the turmoil.

• On Friday, Marie Edmee LeRoux, a WWI veteran, received a military service and headstone recognizing her wartime position—nearly 70 years after she died.

  • LeRoux was a “Hello Girl,” a switchboard network operator who communicated critical information from the front lines. Like many female WWI veterans, the Hello Girls and their contributions went unacknowledged for decades after the war.

Business and Tech

• According to the latest jobs report, a record number of working-age women are currently employed in the U.S., likely thanks to the rise of flexible work arrangements.

• But at the same time, a growing childcare crisis threatens their ability to stay in the workforce. After last year’s childcare “cliff,” when pandemic-era federal funding for the industry stopped, more families have reported not having childcare.

• Kim Godwin, President of ABC News, is stepping down after three tumultuous years in the role. Godwin was the first Black woman to run a broadcast news division.

Politics

• Stormy Daniels, the adult film star at the center of Trump’s hush money trial, took the stand today. Her testimony detailed the alleged sexual encounter with Trump that she was paid to keep quiet ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

  • Trump’s lawyers asked for a mistrial, claiming that Daniels’ testimony was irrelevant and “extremely prejudicial” against the former president. The judge denied their request but acknowledged that parts of the testimony were excessive.

  • Hope Hicks, a longtime aide and advisor to Trump, was also called to the witness stand last week. Despite falling out with Trump in 2021 after the Jan 6. attack on the Capitol, she appeared to struggle testifying against him.

  • Hicks was a witness for the prosecution, which hoped to prove that the payout was intended to avoid damage to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Experts say her testimony likely did the job.

• A new poll found that most voters in key swing states support abortion rights. 64% of respondents from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

• In California, a new bill could offer relief to criminalized victims of domestic violence. If passed, the legislation would allow survivors to petition courts to vacate sentences resulting from their abuse.

  • The impact of the bill could be massive—up to 90% of inmates in U.S. women’s prisons have experienced some form of abuse.

Healthcare

• Anecdotal reports of “Ozempic babies” are popping up on social media and in the news, as women who take weight loss drugs experience unexpected pregnancies despite being on birth control or having previous issues with infertility.

  • Little is known about the relationship between fertility and weight loss drugs, a data deficit that some say underscores gender bias in the U.S. healthcare system.

• March of Dimes launched a campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of baby aspirin during pregnancy. Among other health advantages, low-dose aspirin can reduce the risk of pre-eclampsia, a serious medical condition, by up to 15% —- yet many pregnant women and healthcare providers don’t know about it.

Culture

• 1.6 million people flocked to Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro to watch Madonna’s free concert, her largest performance ever.

• The 2024 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded, and women took home wins in Investigative Reporting, Explanatory Reporting, Local Reporting, Feature Writing, Fiction, Drama, History, Biography, and Memoir.

Further Reading

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