In a new report, Doctors Without Borders says sexual violence is the ‘defining feature’ of the conflict in Sudan.
Hanaan was 18 years old when she was raped by members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group accused of committing widespread “war crimes” during nearly three years of fighting against Sudan’s army.
She was walking alongside a female friend to her makeshift home in an encampment for displaced people in South Darfur, when four men on motorbikes stopped them and asked where they were going.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“Two took each girl, and they raped us,” she told Doctors Without Borders, an international medical NGO known by its French initials MSF.
“I feel uncomfortable in my body, heavy. I don’t feel pain, apart from in my back – because they beat me, they beat me with their guns on my back,” she said.
Hanaan – not her real name – shared her testimony as part of a report released by MSF on Tuesday, which details the widespread use of sexual violence as a weapon in Sudan’s ongoing brutal civil war.
The NGO said 3,396 survivors of sexual violence sought treatment in MSF-supported health facilities across North and South Darfur between January 2024 and November 2025.
The data, presented in the report titled, There is Something I Want to Tell You…, was drawn from MSF programmes in just two of Sudan’s 18 states and reflects only a fraction of the crisis, while the true scale of the phenomenon remains unknown.
Women and girls accounted for 97 percent of survivors treated in MSF programmes. The RSF and allied militias were found to be primarily responsible for the systematic abuse.
Children among the survivors
“Sexual violence is a defining feature of this conflict – not confined to front lines, but pervasive across communities,” Ruth Kauffman, MSF emergency health manager, said in a statement.
“This war is being fought on the backs and bodies of women and girls. Displacement, collapsing community support systems, lack of access to healthcare and deep-rooted gender inequalities are allowing these abuses to continue across Sudan.”
Following the RSF’s capture of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, on October 26, 2025, MSF treated more than 140 survivors fleeing to Tawila. Among them, 94 percent were attacked by armed men, with many reporting assaults along escape routes.
The assaults “deliberately targeted non-Arab communities as a means of humiliation and terror, echoing previous RSF atrocities such as the dismantling of Zamzam camp”, the report said. The RSF took control of famine-hit Zamzam camp in the western Darfur region after two days of heavy shelling and gunfire in April 2025.
Survivors described attacks not only during fighting, but in everyday settings, such as fields, markets and displacement camps.
Children were also among the survivors. In South Darfur, one in five survivors was under 18, including 41 children younger than five, the organisation said.
MSF called on the United Nations, donors and humanitarian actors to urgently scale up health and protection services in Darfur and all of Sudan, and on all parties to the conflict to cease and prevent sexual violence and hold perpetrators accountable.
Displaced Lebanese families ‘living in constant fear’ under Israeli bombardment, warns UN Refugee Agency official.
Lebanon faces the threat of a “humanitarian catastrophe”, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has warned, as Israel expands its weeks-long bombardment and ground invasion of the country.
UNHCR’s Lebanon representative Karolina Lindholm Billing said on Friday that Israeli strikes and forced displacement orders have affected people living across the country – from southern Lebanon to the Bekaa Valley, the capital Beirut, and further north.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
More than 1.2 million people have been forced from their homes since Israel’s intensified attacks against its northern neighbour began in early March, according to UN figures.
“The situation remains extremely worrying and the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe … is real,” Lindholm Billing told reporters during a briefing in Geneva.
She noted that, as displacement numbers continue to rise, Lebanon’s already overstretched shelter system is struggling to meet families’ needs.
“Just last week, there were strikes that hit central Beirut, including in densely populated neighbourhoods … where many people had tried to find safety in collective shelters,” Lindholm Billing said.
“The families are … living in constant fear, and the psychological toll, particularly on children, will last far beyond this current escalation.”
Israel launched intensified attacks across Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israeli territory following the February 28 assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the US-Israel war on Iran.
The Israeli military has carried out aerial and ground attacks across the country while issuing mass forced displacement orders for residents of the country’s south, as well as several suburbs of Beirut.
On Friday afternoon, the Israeli military said it had begun a wave of air strikes on Beirut. It also issued more forced displacement orders for several areas in the city’s southern suburbs, including the neighbourhoods of Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh.
Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets into northern Israel and confront Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, with leader Naim Qassem stressing this week that the group had no plans to stop fighting “an enemy that occupies land and continues daily aggression”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also announced plans to expand the country’s ground invasion in southern Lebanon, saying the military would create “a larger buffer zone” in Lebanese territory.
Rights groups have condemned the expanded operation and warned that preventing Lebanese civilians from returning to their homes in the south may amount to the war crime of forced displacement.
“Israel’s tactics of mass expulsion in Lebanon raise serious risks of forced displacement,” Human Rights Watch said on Thursday. “Forced displacement and collective punishment are war crimes.”
Displaced residents sit outside a tent in a local school in Beirut after fleeing their homes in southern Lebanon, on March 27, 2026 [Wael Hamzeh/EPA]
The Israeli military’s destruction of civilian homes and several bridges linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country has also fuelled concerns that Israel is trying to isolate the area.
During Friday’s news briefing, UNHCR’s Lindholm Billing noted that the destruction of the bridges has made accessing southern Lebanon “increasingly difficult”.
“The destruction of key bridges in the south has cut off entire districts … isolating over 150,000 people and severely limiting humanitarian access with essential items to reach them,” she said.
Reporting from Tyre in southern Lebanon on Friday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Obaida Hitto also stressed that Israel’s forced evacuation orders are “causing a lot of panic” among residents.
“Evacuation orders are happening in areas that were previously thought to be safe,” he said, adding that the destruction and damage to bridges over the Litani River in the south has made the prospect of finding safety more difficult.
“This is putting the government in Beirut in a very difficult situation to try and respond to the humanitarian crisis quickly growing in the south of the country,” Hitto said.
Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted a former waitress in 1972 after escorting her to one of his shows, a civil jury in California concluded Monday, awarding the woman $19.25 million in damages.
The verdict was the latest turn in a series of legal battles the disgraced entertainer, now 88, has faced since allegations that he repeatedly drugged and raped women exploded publicly about a decade ago. Since then, he served about three years in a Pennsylvania prison on sexual assault charges before the case was overturned in 2021.
Donna Motsinger, now 84, said in her lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court that Cosby had given her wine and a pill that left her unable to move, and that she woke up in her house wearing nothing but her underwear, according to court records, and that “she knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”
Cosby has denied the allegations, as well as those brought by dozens of other women who claimed they had been drugged and raped. Coming in the early years of the #MeToo movement, a broad social media-inspired campaign to name and prosecute men accused of sexual misconduct, Cosby’s attorneys painted him as an unfair target of mass vigilantism gone awry.
Motsinger sued Cosby in 2023, alleging that, at the time, she was working at a Sausalito restaurant called The Trident that was popular with celebrities, including Cosby, according to the complaint her attorneys filed Sept. 27 of that year. One night, Motsinger accepted Cosby’s invitation to go with him to his show at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos. Cosby picked her up at her home in a limousine, according to her complaint, and, on the way to the venue, gave her the wine and a pill that she thought was aspirin.
“Next thing she knew, she was going in and out of consciousness while two men attending to Mr. Cosby were putting her in the limousine,” the complaint said. “The last thing Ms. Motsinger recalls were flashes of light,” before waking up in her house in nothing but underwear.
Motsinger didn’t consent to Cosby’s sexual contact and, having been rendered unconscious by drugging, she couldn’t consent to it to begin with, according to the complaint. As a consequence of her ordeal, her complaint says she suffered lost wages, medical bills, pain and suffering and emotional distress.
Trump gathered loyal Latin American allies for a “Shield of the Americas” summit. (Archive)
The “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is a central feature of U.S. strategy designed to secure hegemony and limit Chinese and Russian influence in Latin America and the Caribbean. It does not, however, represent a decisive shift in Washington’s relations with the region. Although the corollary does not make this explicit in its formal statement, in practice it makes more evident what liberal rhetoric has long sought to mask: military and covert interventions aimed at preserving U.S. domination in the Western Hemisphere, undermining progressive movements and governments, and backing right-wing regimes. In this sense, it abandons even the pretense of respect for international law and human rights. In what follows we argue that the Trump Corollary constitutes not only an ideological and imperialist offensive against decolonial and multipolar currents in Latin America, but also a strategic project whose assault on Venezuela has broader geopolitical implications.
The ideological backdrop
Although Washington’s unrestrained militarism, which enjoys bipartisan support, is indeed cause for alarm, the erosion of even the pretense of commitment to liberal-democratic values, human rights, and international law did not begin with the Trump administration. The live-streamed Israeli genocide in Gaza, enabled and backed by the Biden administration, has made this difficult to deny. Moreover, it highlights how the U.S.-European axis has normalized impunity for systematic violence against non-combatants. This erosion of even its own professed liberal values has helped consolidate a political climate in which the Trump administration could intensify its offensives against Venezuela and Cuba and pursue a war of aggression against Iran.
This normalization of necropolitics can be better understood through the ideological logic used to justify it. We can make sense of this logic by distinguishing between two different tendencies within Western Eurocentric modernity. On the one hand is the myth of European supremacy, what Enrique Dussel calls the “developmentalist fallacy,” which has been used to justify colonization, with its racial hierarchy, since the invasion of Amerindia in 1492. On the other is a rational, emancipatory current rooted in ideas of community, equality, and liberty. As critical historians have shown, these emancipatory traditions did not originate solely in Europe; they were also present among some Indigenous peoples, such as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, whose Great Law of Peace established participatory forms of government centuries before European contact. Historically, these ideals were never extended fully to colonized peoples, nor to people of color within the metropole. This contradiction persists. Washington’s recent rhetoric justifying attacks on Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran expresses the colonial, violent side of modernity while discarding its emancipatory, humanist dimensions.
Civilizational rhetoric and the objectives of the Trump Corollary
It is this myth of European supremacy, often expressed with religious fervor even when stripped of its humanist facade, that serves as the ideological justification for the offensives launched this year. This worldview was crystallized in a speech delivered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the 62nd Munich Security Conference on February 14, 2026. That speech anticipated the inauguration in Miami, on March 7, of Shield of the Americas, a new U.S. partnership with right-wing allies in Latin America and the Caribbean, to be led by former Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem. Rubio, in effect, called for a rejection of historical accountability, stating:
We do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame. We want allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage, who understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilization, and who, together with us, are willing and able to defend it. . . . The great Western empires had entered into terminal decline, accelerated by godless communist revolutions and by anti-colonial uprisings that would transform the world and drape the red hammer and sickle across vast swaths of the map in the years to come.
This rhetoric illustrates Rubio’s disdain for anti-colonial struggles that commenced not with the Cold War and communism, but at the very start of the European invasions of Amerindia. Indeed, the “guilt and shame” surrounding the subjugation and exploitation of Indigenous peoples was expressed as early as the sixteenth century, when Bartolomé de Las Casas documented and denounced the tortures inflicted upon them in the name of a European civilizing mission. The same civilizational appeal surfaced again at the Miami summit, where Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called upon members of the Shield to defend their shared cultures and, in particular, “Western Christian civilization.” By casting anti-colonialism as an insidious force, Rubio’s rhetoric functions to blunt decolonial critiques of the Trump Corollary.
Despite Washington’s zeal for exporting Western ideals, decolonizing currents in Latin America’s political, economic, social, and cultural life have taken deep root. Since the 1960s, Marxism, along with liberation theology, liberation philosophy, and Indigenous struggles for self-governance, have helped articulate ethical and political critiques of colonial domination, racial hierarchy, and dependent forms of development from the perspective of the Global South. Indigenous cosmovisions and the philosophy of buen vivir have influenced constitutional and political life in the region and beyond. For example, the United Nations now recognizes the concept of the rights of nature as central to sustainable development. The recognition of the rights of Mother Earth has also been incorporated into the constitutions of both Bolivia and Ecuador, and the plurality of Indigenous and Afro-descendent nationalities is recognized in several Latin American constitutions.
The Trump Corollary emerges in direct opposition to these decolonial currents. It seeks to restore U.S. primacy over the hemisphere’s governance and resources by curtailing the region’s expanding commercial and diplomatic ties with China, Russia, and other non-Western partners. To advance this agenda, Washington has worked to destabilize or overthrow progressive governments while favoring right-wing administrations more aligned with its interests, in some cases through intimidation, electoral interference, or direct military intervention. Much like the Alliance for Progress, Operation Condor, and the invasion of Panama before it, this latest evolution of the Monroe Doctrine invokes the pretext of security to reassert Washington’s influence over hemispheric political and economic life while limiting the region’s turn toward greater autonomy. Yet that effort confronts a regional reality that Washington cannot easily reverse. Trade relations transcend political divisions in Latin America and the Caribbean. And in South America, China has become the principal trading partner for much of the subregion. This complicates Washington’s efforts to rein in Latin America’s turn toward multipolarity. China’s Third Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean presents the region as an “essential force” in the move toward a multipolar world and economic globalization, and describes the bilateral relationship in terms of equality, mutual benefit, openness, and shared well-being. This stated approach stands in clear contrast to the Trump Corollary’s posture of coercion, Western supremacy, and geopolitical subordination. It is, in part, this regional turn toward multipolarity that the assault on Venezuela seeks to counter.
Venezuela: The central case
The violent reality of the Trump Corollary has been most clearly revealed in Venezuela. Washington’s campaign of deadly strikes against maritime vessels in the Caribbean, a series of extrajudicial killings that claimed the lives of more than 145 people, served as a prelude to the January 3 surprise aerial assault on Caracas, named Operation Absolute Resolve. The maritime victims included people from nations such as Colombia, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela who were targeted without public evidence of narco-trafficking or due process. Operation Absolute Resolve itself claimed the lives of more than 120 people, including civilians and security forces, and culminated in the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. In Venezuela, the Trump Corollary deploys military force, coercive diplomacy, and control over strategic resources. It also deals a blow to the Bolivarian cause by making an example of a state that has stood as the leading force of regional independence and integration for more than two decades.
Rather than moving, in the short term, to dismantle Chavista institutions, as many Venezuelan opposition hard-liners in Miami and Madrid expected, the Trump administration in the aftermath of Operation Absolute Resolve instead has resorted to “deal-making” with Acting President Delcy Rodríguez. The recognition of interim president Delcy Rodríguez as “the sole Head of State” of Venezuela might be part of an effort by the Trump administration to strip President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores of the presidential immunity to which they are entitled. Despite Trump’s praise for a supposedly mutually beneficial relationship with the Chavista government, this is not a win-win situation. Acting President Rodríguez is attempting to balance Washington’s demands for unfettered access to the country’s natural resources with Venezuela’s own economic interests and the long-term survival of the Bolivarian Revolution. That coercive political context also affects the economic arrangements now taking shape in Venezuela.
As new economic agreements are being “negotiated,” major Venezuelan state assets previously frozen, seized, or placed beyond Caracas’s control remain unrecovered. Prior to Operation Absolute Resolve, the U.S. seized Venezuelan aircraft and targeted ships carrying Venezuelan oil that U.S. authorities said were involved in sanctions evasion. The most egregious case is that of Citgo, Venezuela’s most valuable foreign asset. Caracas has already lost real control over it, and U.S. courts are now overseeing proceedings that could permanently strip Venezuela of ownership to pay creditors.
More recently, a series of Trump administration officials have gone to Caracas to press for greater U.S. influence over Venezuela’s oil industry. They have also “negotiated” with the Chavista government to bring about legal reforms that will facilitate U.S. investment in the extraction of critical minerals and other natural resources. According to Venezuela Analysis (02/20/26), “The Trump administration is forcing all royalty, tax, and dividend payments from Venezuelan oil production [to] be paid into accounts managed by Washington.” For Venezuelan critics of U.S. intervention, these arrangements may result in a significant transfer of national wealth under pressure. Other observers argue that renewed investment could bring Venezuela badly needed revenues. In any case, there is no doubt that these economic arrangements are being carried out in a coercive context.
Regional extensions of the corollary
The offensive against Venezuela did not occur in isolation. It was soon followed by a strangling energy embargo on Cuba designed to provoke a humanitarian crisis to bring about “regime change.” After more than sixty-six years of U.S. embargo against Cuba, this latest escalation is intended not only to destabilize and isolate the island but also to shatter the morale of the forces of resistance throughout the region. At the same time, it has galvanized worldwide solidarity, despite the betrayals of governments that have succumbed to U.S. pressure to expel Cuban doctors and dismantle other forms of Cuban internationalist assistance. Meanwhile, the administration has been pressuring Mexico with the specter of unilateral military strikes against drug cartels, signaling a disregard for Mexico’s repeated insistence on its own sovereignty. In Colombia, Washington antagonized President Gustavo Petro with politically charged drug-trafficking allegations and threats of military intervention, a confrontational posture that later gave way to rapprochement after Petro met with Trump at the White House. In Honduras, the U.S. intervened to back the presidency of the right-wing candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura who won the presidential election in December 2025 and took office on January 27.
The latest example of this interventionist regional posture was the U.S.-Ecuadorian military operation launched on March 3, which conducted bombings near the Colombian border in northeastern Ecuador, ostensibly aimed at narco-terrorists and illegal mining. In Ecuador, as in Peru, small-scale artisanal mining is often practiced within Indigenous communities living near mineral deposits and employs methods with a far lighter environmental impact than industrial-scale extraction. Whatever its stated purpose, the operation may have the effect of displacing artisanal mining and opening mineral-rich territory to large North American transnational corporations. In brief, by convening twelve compliant right-wing regional leaders in Miami, the Shield of the Americas summit serves to institutionalize Washington’s renewed drive toward regional hegemony. But the significance of this offensive is not only regional.
Geopolitical implications
The Trump Corollary has geopolitical importance because the recent offensive to consolidate U.S. hegemony in the Americas has served as a strategic prelude to the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. The offensive in Venezuela not only stops Venezuelan crude from reaching Cuba, thereby sharpening the knife of the subsequent energy embargo, but also secures strategic leverage over the largest oil reserves in the world ahead of Iran’s restrictions on passage through the Strait of Hormuz. In this sense, Venezuela is not peripheral to the wider conflict, but central to it. This does not, however, mean that the Trump administration ever had a clear, coherent rationale for starting this war of aggression against Iran.
The ever-shifting rationale for the war was at first framed in terms of protecting demonstrators in Iran, then became an effort to overthrow the government, and has now dissolved into incoherence, with no consistent justification offered at all. In any case, the war may also carry broader geopolitical implications, insofar as prolonged disruption in Gulf oil exports would place pressure on China, whose energy needs depend heavily on Middle Eastern crude shipments. It is also beginning to generate visible political strains within NATO, as doubts about the direction of the war grow in Europe, with Spain as the clearest example. It has likewise raised concerns among some U.S. allies in the Gulf about the wisdom of continuing to host major U.S. bases.
Taken together, the shifting rationale for the war, the U.S.-Israeli callous disregard for civilian life and infrastructure, its mounting economic costs, and the danger that the conflict could spiral out of control and raise the specter of the possible deployment of nuclear weapons suggest that the decision to wage war on Iran was a profound miscalculation, one harmful not only to Iran and the wider region, but also to the people of the U.S. and the global economy. It also exhibits in stark relief the same colonial ideology that underlies the Trump Corollary. For these reasons, opposition to the war, as well as to the Trump Corollary, is growing both at home and abroad.
William Camacaro is a Venezuelan-American National Co-Coordinator in the Alliance for Global Justice. He was a co-founder of the Bolivarian Circle of New York “Alberto Lovera” and Senior Analyst for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA). He holds a Master’s Degree of Fine Arts and a Master’s Degree in Latin American Literature from City University of New York. William has published in the Monthly Review, Counterpunch, COHA, the Afro-America Magazine, Ecology, Orinoco Tribune and other venues. He has organized delegations to Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela. He has been a long-time activist for social justice in the United States, such as organizing protests against police brutality in NYC, for the independence of Puerto Rico, and for the freedom of political prisoners. William has also been a leader in defense of progressive governments and social movements in Latin America.
Frederick B. Mills, Ph.D., is professor of philosophy and a member of the Philosophy of Liberation Association and the American Philosophical Association. He has received awards for excellence in teaching and international outreach from Bowie State University. Mills has published articles on philosophy of mind, ethics and public policy, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Mario Bencastro, Enrique Dussel as well as political analysis on contemporary Latin American politics. He has contributed articles to Counterpunch, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, and other independent media.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.
This is the question on everyone’s mind of “The Bachelorette’s” producers, ABC, Hulu and the Disney legal team.
On Thursday, ABC announced that the heavily promoted new season of “The Bachelorette,” scheduled to premiere Sunday, would not be moving forward “at this time.” Why not? Well, the Bachelorette in question, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Taylor Frankie Paul, was the subject of a second domestic assault investigation as a damning video from her first, in which she pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, made the rounds courtesy of TMZ. Filming for Season 5 of “Mormon Wives,” which Paul executive produces, was also abruptly halted.
The disturbing video is hard to watch. Not so much because Paul puts on-again, off-again partner Dakota Mortensen into a headlock and then pelts him with metal bar stools — sadly, this is a scene that would not be out of place on many reality shows — but because a small child is in the room. After one of the stools bounces toward the camera, Paul’s then-5-year-old daughter Indy begins crying and Mortensen later says “help your child.” Even as the child cries “Mommy,” Paul continues on her rampage. When Mortensen belatedly attempts to help Indy, Paul screams at him to “get away from my child.”
And while “Bachelorette” producers and Disney lawyers may not have seen the video, which was introduced in the 2023 court case, the police report makes it clear that Indy was injured during the incident, noting a “goose egg” on the child’s head. Paul was charged with aggravated assault, child abuse and domestic violence in the presence of a child. Paul, who said she had been drinking before the incident, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony. The other charges were dismissed and Paul, who was put on probation, submitted a plea of abeyance. In August 2026, a court will review the assault charge and, if Paul complies with the terms of her probation, could lessen it to a misdemeanor.
Should a new criminal charge be made after the current investigation, all bets are off.
So was it the emergence of the video or the possibility of a felony conviction that caused ABC to put this season of “The Bachelorette” on ice? Does the reason matter?
ABC knew that Paul had been charged in a domestic violence incident that led to the injury of her child and somehow thought she would make an excellent Bachelorette anyway.
What were they thinking?
“The Bachelorette” Season 22 billboard starring Taylor Frankie Paul is seen on Thursday — the day her season was axed.
(HIGHFIVE / Bauer-Griffin / GC Images via Getty Images)
They were thinking that audiences like messy “authenticity,” and it doesn’t get any more authentically messy than 31-year-old Paul, who climbed to social media fame by founding MomTok, a TikTok community of married Mormon women dancing, joking and pushing against the traditions and restrictions of their faith. Pretty and profane, funny and frank, Paul amassed a large following. After Paul discussed the “soft swinging” she and her husband engaged in with other Mormon couples, the group went viral and led to the creation of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the first episode of which was titled “The First Book of Taylor.”
Chronicling the fallout from the “soft-swinging” scandal, the first season built on Paul’s frank discussions of her chaotic life; it was Hulu’s most-watched unscripted season premiere of 2024. The subsequent three seasons, in which the MomTokers deal with the pressures of fame, their romantic relationships and all manner of internal “Mean Girls” drama, have continued to grow the show’s audience even as ratings for “The Bachelor” franchise flagged.
To the algorithm, or a numbers cruncher, the hopes that Paul could bring some of the “Mormon Wives” magic to “The Bachelorette” might make sense.
Except Paul isn’t magic; she waves her red flags high and proud, and the good folks at ABC, Hulu and Disney charged at them with the oblivious desperation of so many trapped, maddened bulls. (It usually does not end well for the bulls either.)
The “soft swinging” led to her divorce from first husband, Tate Paul, with whom she has two children, including Indy. As chronicled on “Mormon Wives,” she began her turbulent relationship with Mortensen, with whom she shares a young son, Ever. Her 2023 arrest was a storyline — she called it one of the rock bottoms of her life, though in a recently resurfaced TikTok video, she brags about throwing things and being arrested — and in Season 4 she was found in bed with Mortensen, with whom she had allegedly broken up, on the morning she was supposed to fly to L.A. to film “The Bachelorette.” (She caught a later flight.) The season finale ended with the possibility that Paul might be pregnant.
Reality cross-pollination has become so increasingly popular — ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” couldn’t live without it, and Peacock’s hit show “The Traitors” is built on it — that there seems to be little thought given to the apples-versus-oranges fact that not every reality show is the same. “Bachelorette” producers not only ignored the misgivings voiced by their own fans, many of whom did not think Paul would be approaching the show as a truly single woman searching for love, they reportedly extended her many freedoms denied other participants, including unmonitored use of her phone during filming.
They clearly wanted the ratings miracle that Paul’s unvarnished wildness had lent “Mormon Wives.”
Casting for maximum drama is a driving force in many reality shows. Even if one accepts that perfectly reasonable people are happy to live in a bubble with strangers for months in hopes of achieving love, fame or a cash prize, someone inevitably is cast to bring the crazy, er, conversation-sparking personality. And like all of television, reality is facing splintered and waning audiences so the decibel level of that conversation-sparking is often dialed way up.
Hence the ascendancy of Taylor Frankie Paul, queen of MomTok and “Mormon Wives,” a woman known for her lack of filter and habit of putting it all out there. For the purposes of our entertainment.
There is, of course, no point in mentioning the many past, and often show-derailing, scandals of the genre — the suicides, the racism, the sexual assault, homophobia, bullying, pedophilia, infidelity and just general ghastliness that has arisen from the popularity of people sharing their “real” lives. Audiences connect with these shows, the messier the better.
But, as it turns out, some messes are too big to leverage even for forgiving eyeballs of reality fans.
“The Bachelor” franchise should have known better. It’s been around for almost a quarter-century and has suffered its fair share of scandals during those years. But drafting a woman who was convicted of assault in an incident that harmed her own child, well, “The Bachelorette” knew it was playing with fire.
Clearly they hoped she would rekindle the dying embers of the show.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The Pentagon is reportedly sending the Wasp class amphibious assault ship USS Boxer and the rest of its Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), loaded with elements of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). This comes as the Trump administration is reported to be increasingly considering seizing or blockading Iran’s highly strategic Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf as part of a new phase of Operation Epic Fury.
It has now been widely reported that what is described as an “accelerated” deployment of the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and the 11th MEU from the West Coast will be in support of Operation Epic Fury.
#BREAKING#EXCLUSIVE The US military has accelerated the deployment of thousands of Marines and sailors to help reinforce US troops in the Middle East amid the war against Iran.
Four officials tell Newsmax the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and the embarked 11th Marine…
The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group also includes two other amphibious warfare ships, theSan Antonio class USS Portland and the Whidbey Island class USS Comstock. The 11th MEU has roughly 2,500 personnel, in total, and includes air and ground components.
This follows reports last week that the America class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and its ARG, carrying elements of the 31st MEU, had also begun moving from the Pacific toward the Middle to support ongoing operations against Iran.
Axios reported today that the Trump administration could be leaning toward establishing a blockade around Iran’s Kharg Island, through which it exports much of its oil, or occupying it, citing unnamed officials. The central goal of doing this would be to step up pressure on the regime in Tehran to, in turn, force it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic through that waterway has come to a virtual halt, which is causing massive reverberations across global energy markets.
“[Trump] wants Hormuz open. If he has to take Kharg Island to make it happen, that’s going to happen. If he decides to have a coastal invasion, that’s going to happen,” one official said, according to Axios. “But that decision hasn’t been made.”
The U.S. military carried out extensive strikes on Kharg Island this past weekend. A deployment of U.S. ground troops there would be a major escalation that could have significant ramifications, including domestically.
Last night, U.S. forces executed a large-scale precision strike on Kharg Island, Iran. The strike destroyed naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers, and multiple other military sites. U.S. forces successfully struck more than 90 Iranian military targets on Kharg… pic.twitter.com/2X1glD4Flt
“We’ve always had boots on the ground in conflicts under every president, including Trump. I know this is a fixation in the media, and I get the politics, but the president is going to do what’s right,” a second official, who also said no decision has yet been made, said, per Axios.
A senior official told Axios: “We’ve always had boots on the ground in conflicts under every president, including Trump. I know this is a fixation in the media, and I get the politics. But the president is going to do what’s right.” https://t.co/6dbDy9zCHr
Just yesterday, TWZ spoke with Joseph Votel, the former commander of U.S. Central Command, with a particular focus on the tumultuous Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20 percent of the world’s oil passes. You can read that interview here.
In the meantime, publicly available flight-tracking data indicates that the U.S. Navy is using MQ-4C Triton intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones to monitor Kharg Island as part of their patrols of the northern Persian Gulf.
A US Navy MQ-4C Triton UAV just completed a reconnaissance mission of the northern Persian Gulf and Kharg Island.
Trump has warned that he might consider targeting oil facilities on the island if Iran or other countries “do anything to interfere” with the safe passage of ships through the strait.
Destroying or damaging oil infrastructure on Kharg could have unintended side effects, however. On the one hand, it would further push up global oil prices. The complex nature of infrastructure might take years to repair, which would compound this. In the long term, there is also the question of whether oil infrastructure here should be preserved for the benefit of a potential new Iranian government.
Any successor to the current regime would lose out on vital oil income, potentially driving further internal strife.
There is also the possibility that seizing the island and cutting off the current Iranian government from its most vital source of revenue could be used as a catalyst to bring about its fall.
Then there is the huge question about the kind of military effort that would be required to seize Kharg. This would require a large-scale, sustained operation and would be brought with risk. The island is only 20 miles from the Iranian mainland, putting whatever U.S. force is there at extreme risk of bombardment of multiple types. Getting amphibious assault ships through the Strait and into the Gulf would be an issue, as well, and those ships would be heavily targeted during transit and especially once inside the Gulf. With this in mind, a longer-range aviation assault would be most likely.
A naval blockade of the island might be easier to achieve in the short term, but it would run the risk of Iranian attacks, likely involving uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), drones, and other asymmetric options, as well as anti-ship cruise missiles, the use of which has been limited up to this point, as you can read about here.
As already noted, additional U.S. forces are headed to the region in the form of the Tripoli ARG and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). While the deployment of the big-deck amphibious assault ship USS Tripolihad already been reported, we now know it is being supported by the amphibious transport docks USS San Diego (LPD-22) and USS New Orleans (LPD-18), thanks to publicly available ship-tracking data.
USS Tripoli (LHA 7) America-class amphibious assault ship westbound in the Singapore Strait – March 17, 2026 SRC: INST- sgshipspotting pic.twitter.com/iC4qBZUZML
What exactly the next phase of Operation Epic Fury will look like could be clearer as the Navy amphibious warfare ships and the thousands of Marines they are carrying get closer to the Middle East.
UPDATES
UPDATE: 6:16 PM EST –
There are some mixed messages coming out of Washington about the future of Epic Fury.
President Donald Trump said he is considering “winding down” the war on Iran. His comments, delivered on his Truth Social account, come even though two Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs) are steaming toward the Middle East and the Pentagon has reportedly drawn up plans to put American troops into Iran with the president’s approval.
Trump added that the U.S. could end the war effort even with the Iranians still closing the Strait of Hormuz.
“We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran,” Trump proclaimed.
He stated that the U.S. has: “(1) Completely degrading Iranian Missile Capability, Launchers, and everything else pertaining to them. (2) Destroying Iran’s Defense Industrial Base. (3) Eliminating their Navy and Air Force, including Anti Aircraft Weaponry. (4) Never allowing Iran to get even close to Nuclear Capability, and always being in a position where the U.S.A. can quickly and powerfully react to such a situation, should it take place. (5) Protecting, at the highest level, our Middle Eastern Allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others.”
The Strait, Trump added, “will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them.”
Since Day One of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump clearly outlined the U.S. Military’s objectives to end the threat of the Iranian terrorist regime.
The President and the Pentagon predicted it would take approximately 4-6 weeks to achieve this mission.
Our coverage has ended for the day. Stay tuned for more.
UPDATE: 5:15 PM EST –
Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, who served as Defense Secretary and CENTCOM commander, weighed in on the war, saying he doesn’t believe regime change is likely.
Former General Jim Mattis says that it’s “very unlikely” that this Iranian regime falls right now.
“They’ve told the Iranian parents, don’t let your sons and daughters demonstrate because we will shoot them. We will go after them. So no, they’re not going to go away anywhere… pic.twitter.com/gq3RzIpPlZ
— Firing Line with Margaret Hoover (@FiringLineShow) March 20, 2026
Iranian state media warns Iran will target the UAE’s industrial port city of Ras Al-Khaimah if Iranian islands are again attacked from that nation, Arab News reported.
UPDATE: 4:20 PM EST –
Trump ruled out any ceasefire with Iran.
.@POTUS: “We can have dialogue, but I don’t want to do a ceasefire. You don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side… we’re not looking to do that.” pic.twitter.com/g2Yjik41GS
He suggested that re-opening the Strait is “a simple military maneuver.”
.@POTUS on opening the Strait of Hormuz: “It’s a simple military maneuver, it’s relatively safe, but you need a lot of help in the sense that you need ships, you need volume. NATO could help us but they so far haven’t had the courage to do so… it would be nice if the countries,… pic.twitter.com/KDOWOI3rgx
The president also declined to say if he will order troops into Iran.
REPORTER: Are you deploying additional troops to the region for deterrence or to optimize your operational capabilities?@POTUS: “I would say this, that if I told you the answer to that question, my military people wouldn’t be very happy — but we have a lot of troops, we have… pic.twitter.com/2jX7t4tgqq
CBS News is reporting that Pentagon officials have made detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran. The network cited multiple sources briefed on the plans..
“Senior military commanders have submitted specific requests aimed at preparing for such an option as President Trump weighs moves in the U.S.-Israel-led conflict with Iran, the sources said,” according to CBS. The news outlet’s sources do not specify how those troops would be used. Meanwhile, the Trump administration hasn’t committed to any such plan to put boots on the ground, which would greatly escalate the war.
CENTCOM provided us an update of the number of troops wounded so far in Epic Fury. To date there have been 232 wounded, up from about 200 on Monday. Of those troops, 207 returned to duty. The number of seriously wounded has held steady at 10. The Associated Press was the first to report these details.
The command also shared video of what it says was an attack on The Esfahan Khomeynishahr Drone Production Plant that produced Shahed one-way attack drones.
The Esfahan Khomeynishahr Drone Production Plant produced Shahed one-way attack drones that have been used by the Iranian regime to attack targets across the region. The photo dated March 3, 2026, shows the plant before U.S. strikes. The photo taken on March 12, 2026 shows the… pic.twitter.com/nXxYpv2eyw
New video shows another Iranian cluster munition exploding over Israel. There were no reports of injuries from the attack, which was the ninth so far this evening, according to Times of Israel military correspondent Emanuel “Mannie” Fabian in a post on X.
One of the missiles launched by Iran at central Israel a short while ago carried a cluster bomb warhead, footage shows.
There are no reports of injuries in the attack, the ninth from Iran since midnight. pic.twitter.com/pH2IMCmSOq
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 20, 2026
NATO provided us a statement about pulling its forces out of Iraq as Iranian-backed militias have carried out several attacks there:
“‘I would like to thank the Republic of Iraq and all the Allies who assisted in the safe relocation of NATO personnel from Iraq,’ said Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Supreme Allied Commander Europe. “‘ would also like to thank the dedicated men and women of NATO Mission Iraq, who continued their mission throughout this period. They are true professionals.’
The last NATO Mission Iraq personnel departed the country on March 20.
NATO Mission Iraq will continue from Joint Force Command Naples. NMI is a non-combat advisory and capability-building mission to assist Iraq in building more sustainable, transparent, inclusive and effective security institutions and forces, so that they themselves are able to stabilise their country, fight terrorism, and prevent the return of ISIS/Daesh.”
Amidst the conflict in the Middle East, the NATO Mission in Iraq has relocated its personnel from the Middle East to Europe, per a release from NATO’s SHAPE page. pic.twitter.com/lSNZ4tH8Kh
Iraq declared a ”force majeure” on all oilfields developed by foreign oil companies, as attacks in the region have disrupted navigation through the Strait of Hormuz,” Al Arabiya reported on X. This is ”preventing most of the country’s crude exports from moving,” oil ministry sources told the outlet.
A force majeure is a contractual clause freeing parties from liability due to extraordinary, unavoidable events, like the war.
Iraq declares force majeure on all oilfields developed by foreign oil companies, as attacks in the region have disrupted navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, preventing most of the country’s crude exports from moving, oil ministry sources say. pic.twitter.com/8mFHXiaRBP
The U.K. Defense Ministry offered its latest update on the war.
The Iranian space program, one of the most advanced in the Middle East, has suffered extensive damage from US and Israeli airstrikes,Bloomberg News reported. The attacks are “potentially driving Tehran to deepen cooperation with China and Russia,” the outlet posited.
The Iranian space program, one of the most advanced in the Middle East, has suffered extensive damage from US and Israeli airstrikes, potentially driving Tehran to deepen cooperation with China and Russia https://t.co/aApWOdfCao
Earlier in our story, we noted that the USS Boxer (ARG) was deploying to the Middle East. Images emerged on line of the Boxer, the Portland and the Comstock departing San Diego.
The USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and the 2,500 Marines from the 11th MEU are heading to the Middle East as the US builds up its amphibious assault capabilities in the region.
The USS Boxer, USS Portland, and USS Comstock departed San Diego over the past 48 hours. pic.twitter.com/SKWTleAbG7
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is once again touting a deal to provide drones to the U.S., an arrangement Trump has so far dismissed.
“I am very interested in signing this agreement with our close partner – the United States of America,” Zelensky stated on X. “So when President Trump is ready, I will definitely be ready. Our negotiating team will discuss this issue at the meeting in the United States.”
As early as a year ago, we proposed a Drone Deal to the United States of America, because it is our key partner.
The agreement is not only about interceptor drones. First and foremost, it includes naval drones and long-range drones that have been proven in the war. It also…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 20, 2026
Jerusalem’s Old City, home to some of the most sacred sites in Christianity, Islam and Judaism, was reportedly hit by missile shrapnel that fell near the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The official Turkish Anadolu news outlet reported that missile fragments also fell in the Jewish Quarter near Jerusalem’s Old City, amid heightened tension and a security alert in the area.
Shrapnel landed in several locations across Jerusalem, with no immediate details available on the extent of the damage, Anadolu added, citing Israeli media.
Another video shows the moment a fragment from an Iranian ballistic missile struck Jerusalem’s Old City this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/qNvTXmRDr6
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 20, 2026
Shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd provided us with a statement on the current state of their maritime commerce.
“We are monitoring the situation very closely, but the situation in the Middle East remains very fluid. Based on our current risk assessment, we have suspended all transits through the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal as well as bookings from and to the Upper Gulf region. As a result, schedules and port calls may change at short notice, and some services will be adjusted. We have contingency plans in place, and the safety of our people on ground and ocean remains our top priority. Our teams are working closely together to find the best possible solutions for our customers’ shipments.”
A Greek-owned medium-sized cargo vessel, also known as a panamax, became the first bulk carrier to transit the Strait of Hormuz with its Automatic Identification System on since March 2, according to Lloyd’s List.
A Greece-owned panamax has become the first bulk carrier to transit the Strait of Hormuz with its Automatic Identification System turned on since March 2. pic.twitter.com/gfNjJsz517
Moscow proposed a quid pro quo to the U.S. under which the Kremlin would stop sharing intelligence information with Iran, such as the precise coordinates of U.S. military assets in the Middle East, if Washington ceased supplying Ukraine with intel about Russia, according to a report from Politico. The outlet cited two people familiar with the negotiations.
Moscow proposed a quid pro quo to the US under which the Kremlin would stop sharing intelligence information with Iran – such as the precise coordinates of US military assets in the Middle East – if the US ceased supplying Ukraine with intel about Russia.https://t.co/rpN0x8XqOZ
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Iranian media have both reported the death of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesperson, Ali Mohammad Naeini. The Israeli military said in a post on X that he was killed in an overnight airstrike.
Just before his death, Naeini issued a statement insisting Iran was still able to produce missiles despite the attacks from Israel and the United States.
Naeini made the comment in response to a claim by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran could no longer build missiles. Referencing how Iranian schools consider a 20 as a perfect score, Naeini said: “Our missile industry score is 20 and there is no concern in this regard because we are producing missiles even during war conditions, which is amazing, and there is no particular problem in stockpiling.”
Naeini joins a growing list of high-profile Iranian regume figures who have been killed so far in the conflict, others including the former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the security chief Ali Larijani, head of the paramilitary Basij force, Gholamreza Soleimani, and the intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib.
Tehran has accused the United Kingdom of “participation in aggression,” reflecting the fact that the country has permitted the U.S. Air Force to use its airbases as a launchpad for bombing missions over Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned his British counterpart, Yvette Cooper, and insisted on his country’s right to self-defence. “These actions will definitely be considered as participation in aggression and will be recorded in the history of relations between the two countries. At the same time, we reserve our inherent right to defend the country’s sovereignty and independence,” Araghchi said on his official Telegram channel.
⚡️🇺🇸🇬🇧🇮🇷 Footage of a US Air Force B-52H bomber returning to the UK following a reported strike mission linked to operations against Iran.
US B-52 and B-1 bombers have been deployed to RAF Fairford and are known to be conducting long-range strike missions. pic.twitter.com/m3sj39PHc3
U.S. Central Command says that it has destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile plant in Karaj, to the west of Tehran. The plant was used to “assemble ballistic missiles that threatened Americans, neighboring countries, and commercial shipping,” CENTCOM said.
Prior to Operation Epic Fury, the Iranian regime used the Karaj Surface-to-Surface Missile Plant to assemble ballistic missiles that threatened Americans, neighboring countries, and commercial shipping. The photo dated March 1, 2026, shows the plant prior to U.S. strikes. The… pic.twitter.com/QEs5toZQpX
Satellite imagery from Bandar Abbas suggests that airstrikes have targeted the naval base and port facilities once again. The imagery below shows fires burning at several different structures, although the level of overall damage is not entirely clear.
BDA Update: Bandar Abbas Southern Fleet HQ Mar 18 high-res imagery confirms another wave of strikes near the primary navy piers
➡️Impacts focused heavily on the infrastructure and support buildings just off the waterfront ➡️Active fires with at least 6 distinct structures… pic.twitter.com/KPFAMNacst
Other recent targets of U.S. airstrikes appear to include Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Satellite imagery shows cratering, but it unclear if the attacks collapsed the IRGC’s tunnel complex that is understood to be on the island. The underground complex is reportedly used to store small boats, missiles, and drones.
A U.S. strike hit the IRGC’s tunnel complex on Qeshm Island, causing visible surface damage (craters, hits on nearby facilities), but failed to destroy or penetrate the hardened underground tunnels, meaning key assets likely survived.
Israel conducted airstrikes on Tehran today, as Iranians marked Nowruz, the Persian New Year. In a statement on X, the Israel Defense Forces said: “The IDF has now begun a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in the heart of Tehran.”
Meanwhile, there are growing questions about the degree to which Israel and the United States are on the same page as regards the war against Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel acted alone in the bombing of Iran’s South Pars gas field, one of the largest in the world. He also confirmed that Trump had asked Israel to stop any further such attacks. “President Trump asked us to hold off on future attacks, and we’re holding out,” Netanyahu explained.
Iran is being “decimated” and no longer had the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, but a revolution in the country would require a “ground component,” Netanyahu added.
When asked whether he had dragged Trump into the conflict, Netanyahu responded: “Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?” Netanyahu told reporters, at a press conference. “He didn’t need any convincing,” he added. “I don’t think any two leaders have been as coordinated as President Trump and I. He’s the leader. I’m, you know, his ally.”
Israel, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates today all announced that their air defenses were responding to Iranian missile attacks. Elsewhere in the region, Bahrain’s interior ministry announced an air raid alert, while Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said it had intercepted a drone in the country’s east.
Kuwait’s state oil firm KPC reported that its Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery was hit by multiple drone attacks early on Friday, causing a fire in some units. No initial casualties were reported, according to the state news agency.
Early this morning, multiple Iranian attack drones hit Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery, setting several areas of the refinery complex ablaze and causing a partial shutdown. pic.twitter.com/9HwqC0fHZi
Iranian attacks on energy infrastructure have taken a toll on Qatar, too. Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar has been forced to reduce the country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity by 17 percent, according to QatarEnergy, the state-run energy giant. The “extensive damage” could reportedly reduce its annual revenues by $20 billion and take “up to five years” to repair.
Footage shows a fire and the moment of impact of an Iranian ballistic missile in Ras Laffan Industrial City, home to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. pic.twitter.com/zIyGJ5p9ue
Iran has also launched strikes against energy infrastructure in Israel.
According to Israel’s energy ministry, an Iranian missile attack — reportedly using cluster warheads — hit oil refineries in the northern port city of Haifa but did not cause “significant damage.” Energy Minister Eli Cohen added that power was disrupted, but electricity was soon restored to most of those who were affected.
The video below purports to show debris from an intercepted Iranian ballistic missile landing on a car in central Israel.
According to the Fars news agency, the Iranian military has reportedly threatened American and Israeli military personnel and officials. In a post on Telegram, the agency quoted a senior spokesperson for Iran’s armed forces as saying: “We are keeping an eye on your cowardly officials and commanders, your wicked pilots and soldiers… From now on, based on the information we have from you, the world’s tourist attractions, resorts, and entertainment centers will not be safe for you either,” the spokesperson reportedly said.
Founder of the Women’s Tennis Association and tennis great Billie Jean King (C) smiles with representatives after speaking during an annual Women’s History Month event in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX in Statuary Hall at the U.S .Capitol in Washington on March 9, 2022. Women’s History Month is celebrated every March. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
March 19 (UPI) — Actor Kevin Spacey settled out of court in England with three men who sued him, accusing him of sexual assault.
The cases were set for trial in the High Court this year.
The men alleged that between 2000 and 2013 Spacey, 66, assaulted them, but Spacey denies any wrongdoing.
In 2023, he was found not guilty of nine criminal sexual assault charges. Two of the accusers in the criminal trial filed the civil cases.
One accuser, known as LNP, alleged that Spacey “deliberately assaulted” him 12 times between 2000 and 2005. Another, known as GHI, said he “suffered psychiatric damage and financial loss” from an assault in 2008.
Actor Ruari Cannon, who has waived his right to anonymity, said that when he was in the Tennessee Williams play Sweet Bird of Youth at the Old Vic Theater in 2013, Spacey groped him at a party. Spacey was the artistic director at the theater at the time.
Cannon also settled with the Old Vic in a civil suit two weeks ago.
Cannon was on a BBC Channel 4 documentary, Spacey Unmasked, in 2024. Spacey called the allegation “ridiculous and it never happened.”
Spacey has been trying to win back his career, Deadline reported. Last year he said he has no home and was living out of hotels and Airbnbs and working as a lounge singer in Cyprus. He claims his struggles are like the actors who were blacklisted during McCarthyism, Deadline said.
Spacey also won a civil case in the United States in which actor Anthony Rapp said Spacey sexually assaulted him when he was 14.
Content note: This story contains details of sexual violence.
Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta is one of several women in the United States speaking out against the sexual violence they say they endured at the hands of labour leader Cesar Chavez.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
In a statement on Wednesday, Huerta said she was motivated to speak out after being contacted for an investigation by The New York Times, which revealed that children as young as age 12 were abused by Chavez.
“I am nearly 96 years old, and for the last 60 years have kept a secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for,” Huerta wrote.
“Following the New York Times’ multi-year investigation into sexual misconduct by Cesar Chavez, I can no longer stay silent and must share my own experiences.”
Chavez, who died in 1993, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association alongside Huerta and other advocates. They rose to fame during the US civil rights movement of the 1960s, practising nonviolent protest techniques similar to those of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Together, Chavez, Huerta and other advocates drew attention to the abuses facing vulnerable immigrant farmworkers, particularly in the Hispanic and Filipino American communities.
Some of the slogans from the movement continue to have resonance in the US political sphere.
The Spanish phrase “si, se puede” — or, in English, “yes, we can” — was adopted as the campaign slogan for President Barack Obama, while the Tagalog phrase “isang bagsak” continues to be a rallying cry for collective organising.
The fight for equality and fair labour practices that Huerta and Chavez led would be remembered as one of the defining moments of the 1960s.
But it was out of fear of denting the burgeoning civil rights movement that Huerta and other women say they stayed silent about Chavez’s abuse.
“I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work,” Huerta said in her statement.
“I wasn’t going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way. I channeled everything I had into advocating on behalf of millions of farmworkers and others who were suffering and deserved equal rights.”
Huerta explained that the first time she had sex with Chavez, she was “manipulated and pressured” into submitting to his advances while on a trip to San Juan Capistrano.
“I didn’t feel I could say no because he was someone that I admired, my boss and the leader of the movement I had already devoted years of my life to,” she said.
The second time, she said she was “forced, against my will”. The New York Times investigation includes a summary of what Huerta says happened: She was in a car that Chavez was driving when he parked in an isolated grape field and raped her.
Both instances resulted in pregnancies, which Huerta says she kept secret. The children were ultimately given to other families to raise.
“I had experienced abuse and sexual violence before, and I convinced myself these were incidents that I had to endure alone and in secret,” she said.
Her story was echoed by the accounts of other women featured in The New York Times investigation.
One of the interviewees, Ana Murguia, said she was 13 when a 45-year-old Chavez kissed her, took off her clothes and tried to have sex with her in his locked office.
He had known her since she was eight years old, and the abuse at his hands prompted her to attempt suicide.
Debra Rojas, meanwhile, was 12 years old when Chavez began groping her. She described being 15 when she was raped by him at a motel near Stockton, California.
A third woman, Esmeralda Lopez, said she was 19 when Chavez tried to pressure her to have sex with him while they were alone on a tour, offering to use his influence to get something named in her honour.
Lopez said she refused his advances, and her mother, a fellow activist, corroborated her account, based on conversations they had at the time.
The women explained that they grappled with whether to come forward and whether they would be believed, given Chavez’s rise to fame as a civil rights hero.
In response to the widening scandal on Wednesday, United Farm Workers — the group that emerged from the National Farm Workers Association — announced it would not participate in any events on Cesar Chavez Day, a federal commemoration that falls on the late leader’s birthday.
The group denied receiving any direct reports of abuse, but it pledged to create a pathway for reports to be submitted.
“Over the coming weeks, in partnership with experts in these kinds of processes, we are working to establish an external, confidential, independent channel for those who may have experienced harm caused by Cesar Chavez,” United Farm Workers wrote in a statement.
“These allegations have been profoundly shocking. We need some time to get this right, including to ensure robust, trauma-informed services are available to those who may need it.”
Lawmakers across the political spectrum, from Texas Governor Greg Abbott to New Mexico Representative Ben Ray Lujan, also called for Chavez’s name to be stripped from public buildings, roads and other places of honour.
Lujan called the revelations in Wednesday’s New York Times report “horrific” and a “betrayal of the values that Latino leaders have championed for generations”.
“His name should be removed from landmarks, institutions, and honors,” Lujan said of Chavez. “We cannot celebrate someone who carried out such disturbing harm.”
Huerta, meanwhile, said that, in the wake of the investigation, community advocacy was more important than ever.
“I have kept this secret long enough,” she wrote. “My silence ends here.”
The Israeli military has launched waves of air raids across southern Lebanon after announcing “limited and targeted ground operations” against Hezbollah positions. Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr is in Marjayoun, which has been turned into an active war zone following clashes.
MCC Resources Sarl, a mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has suspended its activities in the country, following an attack on its mining sites in the Mambasa territory of Ituri province. On the night of March 11 to 12, terrorists attacked the mining site, killing scores, looting, and destroying facilities.
The Allied Defence Forces (ADF), an affiliate of the Islamic State, recently claimed responsibility for the attack. Local sources told HumAngle that the ADF members came from Bapere, in Lubero territory of North Kivu. MCC Resources Sarl is a Congolese company with foreign investors, operating in compliance with the laws and economic standards of the DRC.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on gold mining sites operated by the Chinese Kimia Mining Enterprise, publishing photographs that showed burning trucks, tractors, and camps.
The new attack is fueling debates on the realities faced by economic operators in the strategic gold mining zone, as well as on the impact of armed violence on the national mining investments in the DRC
“In an official correspondence addressed to the military governor of Ituri, the MCC Resources management indicates that due to the persistent degradation of the security situation in the Eastern part of the country, it had proceeded with the preventive evacuation of its personnel several weeks before the attack. According to the company, the incursion of armed groups not formally identified in the Muchacha site has led to acts of looting and sabotage aimed at its mining installations, without, however, causing the loss of human lives,” the company revealed in a statement released on March 15.
Faced with security risks deemed very high, MCC Resources announced the suspension of all mining activities at its Muchacha and Mavuvu sites until further notice, adding that its employees and partners remain its top priority. The company says it is following the evolution of the security situation to envisage, at the right moment, the progressive resumption of its operations.
The Congolese government has condemned the attack. In a communique also published on March 15, the government extended its condolences to the families of the victims and expressed its compassion to the populations of Mambasa territory affected.
MCC Resources Sarl, a mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has halted operations following a deadly attack by the Allied Defence Forces on its mining sites in Ituri province.
The March 11-12 assault, claimed by the Islamic State, resulted in fatalities, looting, and infrastructure damage, and highlights ongoing security challenges impacting mining investments in the region.
The company had preemptively evacuated staff due to security concerns and has suspended activities at its Muchacha and Mavuvu sites, prioritizing the safety of employees and partners. The Congolese government condemned the attack, extending condolences to victims’ families. MCC Resources is monitoring security developments to eventually resume operations.
