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PART 1: International media
from
March 8 until April 12 2021
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PART 2: International media
from
March 1 untill April 12 2021 and continueing
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When you wonder why I am a radical
feminist
read Short
bio Gianna & Gino d'Artali
<When one hurts
or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity.>
Gino d'Artali
WELCOME TO PART 2 OF
INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY
2021
WHICH GOES ON THIS PAGE WHERE I
LEFT YOU APRIL 12 BUT I CONTINUE THERE IF YOU SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN
OR YOU STAY AT THE BEGINNING WHICH STARTS MARCH 1 2021 AND CONTINUES
WITH MY MEDIA LOGBOOK. YOU'LL FIND OUT HOW IT WORKS
BY SCROLLING AND READING.
THANK YOU.
When I quote I use < is opening quote and > is closing
quote. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Gino d'Artali, radical hardcore feminist
and chief editor www.cryfreedom.net
but I add the below first (topics before March 8 2021, International
womens day) as a need to do because my mother
(1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio,
non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da
qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so
called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
If you think this is old news think again:
Al Jazeera March 1 2021 by Aljazeera staff
<Trauma, anger as Tigrayans recount Eritrea troops grave crimes.
Survivors and witnesses in Ethiopia its embattled region tell Al Jazeera
how civilians were raped and killed by troops from neighbouring
countries.
Mekelle, Ethiopia December 4 is a date that fills Mona Lisa Abraha with
horror. It was then, the 18 year old says, that Eritrean soldiers
entered her village of Tembin in Ethiopia its embattled region of Tigray.
<They tried to rape me and I was thrown to the ground. Then, one of the
soldiers fired bullets to scare me, but they hit my hand and then fired
another bullet that went through my arm,> Abraha recalls from a hospital
bed on the outskirts of Tigray’s capital, Mekelle.
<I was bleeding for hours. Then, I had my arm amputated,> she says,
before breaking down in tears.
Abraha her account is one of few emerging from the secretive conflict in
Tigray, where communications were cut for many weeks and media access
was severely curbed before being slightly eased recently. Al Jazeera has
now gained rare access and heard from witnesses and survivors who allege
that they suffered grave abuses at the hands of Eritrean troops. After
months of tension, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in early November
ordered an air and ground offensive in Tigray to remove the region its
governing party, the Tigray People its Liberation Front (TPLF), following
attacks on federal army camps. The TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian
politics for decades until Abiy came to power in 2018, had presided over
a brutal 1998 untill2000 war with Eritrea.
Witnesses, survivors and residents told Al Jazeera that forces from
Eritrea committed egregious crimes after entering Tigray to support the
Ethiopian military against their longtime foe.
<Some girls and I managed to leave the village, but on the road we were
caught by Eritrean soldiers,> Saba, a displaced woman from Mai Kadra,
told Al Jazeera. <More than 10 soldiers took turns raping us.>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/1/we-are-dying-tigrayans-speak-of-abuse-by-eritrean-troops
Al Jazeera March 25 2021
<Ethiopia its Tigray: Men forced to rape family members, UN reports
At least 516 rape cases reported by five medical facilities in Mekelle,
Adigrat, Wukro, Shire and Axum, UN official says.
More than 500 rape cases were reported to five clinics in Ethiopia its
Tigray region, the United Nations said on Thursday, warning because of
stigma and a lack of health services the actual numbers were likely to
be much higher.
<Women say they have been raped by armed actors, they also told stories
of gang rape, rape in front of family members and men being forced to
rape their own family members under the threat of violence,> Wafaa
Said, deputy UN aid coordinator in Ethiopia, said in a briefing to UN
member states in New York.>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/25/ethiopias-tigray-men-forced-to-rape-family-members-un-reports
Below we continue where we ended www.cryfreedom.net/womens-day-21.htm on
April 12 2021.
but here we start:
The Guardian April 26 2021
Yvonne Roberts
<The UK its femicide pandemic. Who is killing our daughters?
In the latest part of our End Femicide campaign, we examine how stalking,
coercive control and pornography lie behind so many of the killings of
272 young women in 10 years. Will the domestic abuse bill, due to become
law this week, do enough to keep women safe?
Alice Ruggles was described by her friends and family as vibrant, witty
and <sharp as a tack>. She loved life. Then, in January 2016, aged 24,
she met Lance Corporal Trimaan <Harry> Dhillon, who was 26. She did not
know that he had a restraining order taken out on him by a previous
girlfriend.
Dhillon began to coercively control Ruggles, isolating her from friends.
In July, having learned that he was cheating on her, she ended their
seven month relationship. Dhillon turned into a stalker. He frequently
drove 100 miles from his camp in Edinburgh to spy on her, leaving
unwanted flowers and chocolates. He continually texted and threatened to
post intimate photographs. He told her on voicemail that he did not want
to kill her, he would not kill her.
On 12 October 2016, 10 months after their first meeting, he broke into
Ruggles her flat in Newcastle, and cut her throat in what the judge
called <an act of utter barbarism>. He wa sentenced to a minimum of 22
years.
This article is about Alice Ruggles and 271 other young women aged 14 to
25 who were killed during a 10 year period from 2009 to 2018. Their
deaths were recorded on the unique database of the Femicide Census.
Among the recurring themes that mark these fatalities are stalking,
coercive control, the impact of pornography and some men its inability
to handle rejection. One in two of the killings of the 272 were <overkills>
involving excessive violence.
The census, given pro bono support by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer,
the international law firm, and the consultants Deloitte, was
established in 2016 by Clarrie O’Callaghan, a former solicitor and now
restaurateur, and Karen Ingala Smith, the chief executive of Nia, a
sexual and domestic violence charity. The census builds on Counting Dead
Women, the record of femicide which Ingala Smith began in 2012 with the
killing of 20 year old Kirsty Treloar, stabbed 29 times by her boyfriend
Myles Williams, 19.
<Eight women were killed by men in the first three days of 2012,> says
Ingala Smith. <Yet, one of the early assaults was described as an
isolated incident and that made me rage. I became increasingly aware of
the value of the data I was collecting but good data becomes almost
meaningless if it is not a catalyst for change.>
On Thursday, the domestic abuse bill will receive royal assent and
become law, after a campaign conducted by women’s groups, MPs, lawyers
and survivors that began in 2017. Among its measures, the bill has a
more accurate definition of abuse, including economic abuse. It makes
non fatal strangulation a specific offence, includes post separation
abuse and makes it illegal to share intimate images without consent.
However, it fails to extend support to migrant women who have no
recourse to public funds.>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/25/the-uks-femicide-epidemic-whos-killing-our-daughters
Al Jazeera April 25 2021
Umamya Khan
<The women of Myanmar: <Our place is in the revolution>
Some 60 percent of protesters against the military coup are women who
fear their hard won rights hang in the balance.
Every day at sunrise, Daisy (her real name is concealed) and her sisters
set out to spend several hours in the heat cleaning debris from the
previous day its protests off the streets of Yangon, Myanmar its largest
city.
Protests have erupted around the country since the military seized
control of the government after arresting democratic leader, Aung San
Suu Kyi, on February 1, and declared a year long state of emergency.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP),
a non profit rights organisation formed by former political prisoners
from Myanmar and based in Thailand, 715 civilian protesters have been
killed and more than 3,000 people have been charged, arrested or
sentenced to prison for taking part in protests. March 27 marked the
deadliest day of the anti coup protests so far, with more than 100
deaths in a single day.
Daisy, a 29 year old elementary school teacher, has been out of work
since the first week of February, because schools have been closed as a
result of the protests, but is the sole earner and carer for her two
younger sisters, aged 15 and 13. Despite this, she spends a portion of
whatever money she has left to help feed hungry protesters.
The military makes use of dalans, local people who are forced to spy on
their neighbours and, in particular, to target women living alone whose
homes are easy targets for looting and harassment. As a result, Daisy
and her sisters have been forced to move home three times and are now in
hiding with relatives.
<The military are preying on vulnerable women, breaking in and raiding
where we live to seize our belongings and lock us up for no reason,>
Daisy says.
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/4/25/women-of-myanmar-stand-resilient-against-the-military-coup
Al Jazeera April 25 2021
Director of UNESCO its Global Education Monitoring Repo
<What role can schools play to end violence and sexual harassment? Effective
sex education programmes can help combat sexual violence in school and
in society.
When will it be safe for a woman to walk herself home at night without
the threat of assault or worse by a man? And when do we arrive at the
moment that all women are safe from their partners in their own homes?
When will schools and workplaces be free of gender-based violence? How
can we use the power of education to turn these norms around?
In the space of just a few months, we have been reminded yet again how
vulnerable women still are to violence and harassment. The tragic murder
of Sarah Everard in the UK was followed by the senseless shooting of six
Asian American women in the state of Georgia. In February, 317 Nigerian
schoolgirls were kidnapped from their boarding school in the
northwestern state of Zamfara. In India, as people were still reeling
from the September 2020 gang rape and subsequent death of a 19 year old
Dalit woman in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh, a supreme court
judge in New Delhi caused outrage after he was quoted as asking an
accused rapist whether he would marry his school aged victim. In
Australia, former government employee Brittany Higgins said she was
raped by a male colleague in a government minister his office in 2019
Meanwhile, there are reports that male government staff have set up a
Facebook group so they can share videos of sex acts performed in
Parliament in Canberra.>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/4/25/what-role-can-schools-play-to-end-violence-and-sexual-harassment
The Guardian April 25 2021
Priya Elan
Model her <hands off my hijab> post sparks protest over France its
proposed ban
Rawdah Mohamed, whose Instagram selfie went viral, says she wants to
fight deeply rooted stereotypes.
A Somali Norwegian model whose Instagram post criticising a proposed ban
on the hijab in France went viral has said she wants to fight <deeply
rooted stereotypes> against Muslim women.
Rawdah Mohamed posted a selfie on Instagram with <hands off my hijab>
written on her hand, starting a campaign that has been trending
onTwitter,Instagram and TikTok.
#Handsoffmyhijab, along with its counterpart #PasToucheAMonHijab, has
been taken up by the Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad and the US
congresswoman Ilhan Omar, as well thousands of women internationally.
They have used the hashtag to protest against the French senate his vote
to ban anyone under 18 from wearing the garment in public.
<I started the hashtag as I felt the need to humanise the movement,>
Mohamed told the Guardian. <Ethnic minority women are always spoken for.
I wished to take back the control of our narratives and tell our stories.>
Mohamed added that the proposed legislation <stems from discrimination
and deeply rooted stereotypes against Muslim women>.
France was the first country to ban the niqab in public spaces, in April
2011, and French towns have banned the burkini, starting a national
conversation around nationalism, identity and feminism.
<I wanted my oppressors to see my face and the women who look like me,>
she said. <They do not get to hide in their luxurious parliament offices
and regulate womens bodies without a fight.>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/apr/25/model-rawdah-mohamed-hands-off-my-hijab-protest-france-ban
Al Jazeera 24 04 2021
<A Tigrayan womb-should never give birth.
Rape in Ethiopian tigray
The Amhara fighters in charge of her hometown of Humera and other
disputed areas of western Tigray had just ordered all Tigrayans in her
neighbourhood to leave their homes within 24 hours.
<The militiamen who have been terrorising us for months,> said the 34
year old mother of three, <told us we are not allowed to live there
anymore, because we are Tigrayans. They ordered us to leave empty handed.
They said all the properties we owned belong to Amharas, not to us.>
The Amhara forces entered western Tigray from neighbouring Amhara region
in support of Ethiopian federal forces in November last year, when Prime
Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an offensive against Tigray its then ruling
party, the Tigray People its Liberation Front (TPLF). Since then, the
Amhara, who are Ethiopia its second largest ethnic group, have taken
control of several areas in the region, land, they claim, that
historically has been theirs.
Akberet wasted no time after the ultimatum.
The following morning, on March 8, she fled her home on foot, her six
month old baby strapped to her back, and her two other sons, aged four
and seven and 14 year old brother in tow.
Some seven hours later, as they reached a bridge on Tekeze River used by
the Amhara forces as an informal border between what they say is now
Amhara and Tigray, four Amhara militiamen stopped them. The Amhara men
separated Akberet from her children and brother and took her into an
abandoned farmer his house, just a few metres away.
The four men took turns raping her. After they were done, the militiamen
inserted into her genitals a hot metal rod that burned her uterus.
<I begged them to stop,> Akberet told Al Jazeera. <I asked them, crying,
why they were doing that to me. What wrong have I done to you?>
<You did nothing bad to us,> she said they told her. <Our problem is
with your womb. Your womb gives birth to Woyane [derogative term used to
refer to the TPLF]. A Tigrayan womb should never give birth.>
After the militiamen left, Akberet was left there unconscious. Her
brother went to get her, and with the help of other displaced people
took her to a town to the east. <The sexual assault made her infertile,< a doctor who treated her there confirmed to Al Jazeera. Her bleeding
has now stopped but Akberet, currently recuperating at a relative his
house, cannot walk and has to keep her legs spread. <Sleeping at night is
hard.>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/21/a-tigrayan-womb-should-never-give-birth-rape-in-ethiopia-tigray
Al Jazeera
April 24 2021
<A Nigerian developers app joins efforts to fight sexual crimes
Helpio allows victims in northern Nigeria to report cases anonymously
and seek help, amid widespread fear of stigmatisation and soaring sexual
assault figures.
By
Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi
<Rivers state, Nigeria: On a morning last February, eight year old
Aminatu Zana, whose real name has been concealed, was raped in her
hometown of Kano, Nigeria its second largest city. The alleged
perpetrator was no stranger: a neighbour, who used his familiarity and a
bar of chocolate to lure the child into his room, then threatened her if
she spoke of his crime.
But bloody traces of his assault on Aminatu her garments gave him away.
Her widowed and impoverished mother, Salima, dreaded going to the police
but was encouraged by her neighbours to press charges. That itself was
uncommon, as due to fear of stigmatisation and lacking trust in legal
pathways, many victims in this part of the country do not pursue justice.
Click here to read more:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/4/23/helpio-nigerian-developer-app-joins-efforts-to-fight-sexual-crimes-kano
The Guardian April 22 2021
by Laura Barton
<The clitoris, pain and pap smears: how Our Bodies, Ourselves
redefined womens health.
First published 50 years ago, the feminist classic was hugely
influential, telling truths about womens bodies long obscured by a
chauvinist medical establishment
In 1969, Wendy Sanford was still in the early days of her marriage,
living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and their newborn
son. A couple of years earlier, she had graduated with high honours from
the prestigious Radcliffe College, and yet the path before her was clear:
domesticity, home decor, dinner parties. She struggled with this new
life. <My husband was so disappointed that I wasn’t happy,> Sanford
remembers. <I cried a lot. I was in the middle of postpartum depression,
and had no words for it at all.>
Sanford spoke to her doctor, who suggested she find solace in raising
the next generation and supporting her husband. He also prescribed a
diaphragm. She asked when she ought to put it in, and the doctor gave
her the same mantra he gave all of his female patients: dinner, dishes,
diaphragm. <So that was the era,> Sanford says. <And he was a very kind
man, but he embodied sexist medical care. He had no idea that he was
just pushing me into the arms of feminism.>
When her son was nine months old, and Sanford felt at her lowest, a
friend invited her to a women its health meeting at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). <You have to come to this group,> the
friend told her, <because we are learning about our bodies.> Reluctantly,
Sanford agreed.
The meeting was not what she expected: <I walked into this lounge full
of women,> she remembers, <and someone up in the front of the room was
talking about the clitoris, orgasm and masturbation, and I was just so
embarrassed. I just sank down to the floor and listened really hard.
This was stuff that I had never heard said out loud before.>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/apr/22/our-bodies-ourselves-clitoris-pain-pap-smears-womens-health
Al Jazeera April 22 2021
<“UNSC: <Deep concern> about
sexual violence allegations in Tigray
In first joint statement after nearly six months of fighting in northern
Ethiopian region, Security Council urges <unfettered humanitarian access
to all people in need>.
Hundreds of women have reported horrific accounts of rape and gang rape
since the start of the conflict in Tigray. Nearly six months after the
eruption of fighting in Ethiopias Tigray region, the United Nations
Security Council has issued its first joint statement on the continuing
crisis, expressing <deep concern> about allegations of human rights
violations, including reports of sexual violence against women and girls.
The 15 member body on Thursday also called for <a scaled up humanitarian
response and unfettered humanitarian access> to address humanitarian
needs, including for people in the embattled region who are in need of
food assistance.
<Today, the Security Council breaks its silence on the ongoing crisis in
the Tigray region of Ethiopia,> said Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ireland
ambassador to the UN who led negotiations over the text. <For the first
time, this Council speaks with one voice to express its collective
concern about the dire humanitarian situation on the ground.>
The Security Council has discussed the situation in Tigray behind closed
doors several times before but had not been able to agree on a
statement, because of opposition from its African members and Russia and
China, according to reports citing diplomats speaking on condition of
anonymity.
In one of those closed-door sessions last week, the UN its top
humanitarian official had said <the humanitarian situation in Tigray has
deteriorated> and warned that the <vast majority> of the region of some
six million people is completely or partially inaccessible> for
humanitarian agencies.
“The conflict is not over and things are not improving,> Mark Lowcock
had told the council as he gave a sobering assessment of the events on
the ground, calling the <reports of systematic rape, gang rape and
sexual violence … especially disturbing and alarmingly widespread>.
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/22/un-security-council-concerned-about-tigray-humanitarian-situation
The Guardian April 15 2021
<I blamed myself>: how stigma stops Arab women reporting online abuse
Women in the Middle East and north Africa say social codes leave them
unable to talk about social media abuse as pandemic pushes sexual
harassment off the streets.
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/apr/15/online-abuse-sexual-harassment-arab-women-middle-east-north-africa-
Al Jazeera
April 15 2021
<Top Ethiopia health official alleges sexual slavery in Tigray
Eleven women tell Reuters they had been raped by soldiers as a top
Ethiopian official has made a sexual slavery accusation.
A young mother was trying to get home with food for her two children
when she says soldiers pulled her off a minibus in Ethiopia’s Tigray
region, claiming it was overloaded.
It was the beginning of an 11-day ordeal in February, during which she
says she was repeatedly raped by 23 soldiers who forced nails, rock and
other items into her vagina, and threatened her with a knife.
Doctors showed Reuters news agency the bloodstained stone and two 3
inches (7.6cm) nails they said they had removed from her body.
The woman, 27, is among hundreds who have reported that they were
subjected to horrific sexual violence by Ethiopian and allied Eritrean
soldiers after fighting broke out in November in the mountainous
northern region of Ethiopia, doctors said.
Some women were held captive for extended periods, days or weeks at a
time, said Dr Fasika Amdeselassie, the top public health official for
the government-appointed interim administration in Tigray.
<Women are being kept in sexual slavery,> Fasika told Reuters. <The
perpetrators have to be investigated.>
Reports of rape have been circulating for months. But Fasika his
assertion, based on womens accounts, marks the first time an Ethiopian
official, in this case, a top regional health officer has made a sexual
slavery accusation in connection with the conflict in Tigray.
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/15/health-official-alleges-sexual-slavery-in-tigray-report
The Guardian
April 15 2021
Alexandra Villarreal <It is a scandal, quite frankly>: US Equal Rights
Amendment still faces uphill battle
A nearly century-long effort to explicitly enshrine gender equality in
the United States constitution may finally be coming to a head.
With renewed attention on anti-discrimination policies following the #MeToo
movement and a record number of women serving in Congress, a nearly
century long effort to explicitly enshrine gender equality in the United
States constitution may finally be coming to a head.
If the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) were incorporated into America its
founding document, it would represent a huge victory for women and
people across the gender spectrum, whose fundamental rights are too
often tied to partisan disagreements.
Trans kids on the Republican bills targeting them: <I am not a problem
to society.>
But amid legal controversies, disingenuous talking points and a chronic
lack of urgency, the landmark amendment still faces an uphill battle.
<It is outrageous, a scandal, quite frankly that women still have to be
in the begging position for their rights,> said Carol Jenkins, president
and chief executive of the ERA Coalition and the Fund for Womens
Equality.
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/15/us-equal-rights-amendment-congress
The Guardian April 15 2021
Olivia Cuthbert
<I blamed myself>: how stigma stops Arab women reporting online abuse
Women in the Middle East and north Africa say social codes leave them
unable to talk about social media abuse as pandemic pushes sexual
harassment off the streets.
The first pornographic picture sent shivers of shock through Amal as she
stared in horror at the phone screen. Until now, she had responded
politely to the older man who had been messaging her on Facebook, hoping
to deter his questions about her life with curt, one-word replies.
More lurid pictures followed, some from pornographic magazines, others
of the man himself in sexual poses. <I started to blame myself and feel
that I invited this because I had replied to him,> says the 21 year-old,
who is a university student in Amman, Jordan.
Amal kept the messages secret from her family, afraid they would punish
her and block her access to social media. Nor did she confide in female
friends. “The pictures were so bad. I couldn’t tell anyone in case they
asked why this man selected me and thought maybe I encouraged him.”
Similar fears silence many women and girls being targeted online as
digital harassment spikes across the Middle East and north Africa. In
nine countries in the region, including Jordan, a UN Women survey found
online harassment was the most commonly reported type of violence
against women during the pandemic. Social distancing and other Covid
restrictions have led abusers towards social networks as a <new space>
for their harassment, according to another UN survey.
It is a double assault on women, who have to grapple with the impacts of
online abuse as well as fears of victim blaming from their family and
community.
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/apr/15/online-abuse-sexual-harassment-arab-women-middle-east-north-africa-
The Guardian
April 15 2021
<The Mexican women who kicked out the cartels.
Adelaida Sánchez is a member of the community police force in Cherán, a
Purépecha indigenous town in Michoacán, Mexico, which declared itself
autonomous in 2011. When the town was under siege from illegal logging,
cartel criminals, and corrupt authorities and the men of the town stood
by and did nothing, it was left to women to lead the fight>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2021/apr/15/the-mexican-women-who-kicked-out-the-cartels-video
Al Jazeera April 12 2021
<Harvey Weinstein indicted in California on sexual assault charges
Case accuses ex Hollywood film producer of alleged attacks on five women
from 2004 to 2013 in the Los Angeles area.
Harvey Weinstein has been indicted in California, in the US on sexual
assault charges, one of his lawyers said on Monday, as the former
Hollywood film producer appeared in a New York court proceeding over
whether to extradite him.
Weinstein, 69, appeared via video link from the Wende Correctional
Facility near Buffalo, New York, for the hearing before Erie County
Court Judge Kenneth Case.
Weinstein has been appealing his February 2020 conviction in Manhattan
and 23-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting former production
assistant Mimi Haleyi and raping former aspiring actress Jessica Mann.
California its criminal case against Weinstein covers alleged attacks on
five women from 2004 to 2013 in the Los Angeles area.
It includes four counts of forcible rape, four counts of forcible oral
copulation, two counts of sexual battery by restraint and one count of
sexual penetration by use of force.
Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone.>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/12/harvey-weinstein-indicted-in-california-sexual-assault-charge
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