News roundup: U.S. men’s soccer, Boy Scouts, Weinsten.
Since reports of Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein’s alleged misconduct toward dozens of women first surfaced in the New York Times on Oct. 5, accusations have mounted as more actresses — including Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Rose McGowan — tell their often distressing stories of power and manipulation by the Hollywood heavyweight against young actresses pursuing their dreams to be a star. Weinstein has not denied all of the claims, but has alluded to getting help and claims that he believed all actions were consensual. On Saturday, Weinstein was booted from the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In other news:
• Longtime Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas reached a reconciliation deal on Thursday after a decade of failed attempts. If the deal holds, it would end a decade-long rift that began with violent clashes in 2007. Fatah governs the West Bank, while Hamas runs Gaza.
• Nearly five years to the day after they were captured by militants linked to the Taliban, an American woman, her Canadian husband and their three children — all born in captivity — were rescued on Thursday by Pakistani troops operating on intelligence provided by the U.S. The couple were kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2012 and were believed to be held by the Haqqani network.
• Relations between the U.S. and pivotal ally Turkey have been freezing since the arrest of a U.S. consular staff member last week, the second to be detained this year. Both sides have frozen many visa services in each other’s countries. Tensions have been boiling over the U.S. support to the Kurdish YPG, a key U.S. ally in Syria, but whom Turkey deems a terror organization.
• The mounting crisis of femicides is plaguing the sprawling State of Mexico, which is the country’s most populous with 16 million residents. The wave of killings of women prompted the Mexican government to issue a gender violence alert in 2015. The State of Mexico officially ranks second to Mexico City with 346 killings classified as femicides since 2011 .