Federal prosecutors announced earlier this week that an Ohio man pleaded guilty to attempting to conduct a mass shooting of women at Ohio State University.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio said 22-year-old Tres Genco, of Hillsboro, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of attempting to commit a hate crime.

According to prosecutors, Genco, who identified as "Incel," which is short for involuntarily celibate, faces a life sentence because it involved an attempt to kill.

"The Incel movement is an online community of predominantly men who harbor anger towards women," prosecutors said in a news release. "Incels advocate violence in support of their belief that women unjustly deny them sexual or romantic attention to which they believe they are entitled."

Genco was arrested and charged last July after investigators found many writings that dated back to 2019, prosecutors said.

According to court documents, investigators found in these writings, one including a manifesto, where he wrote that he would “slaughter” women “out of hatred, jealousy, and revenge…” and referred to death as the “great equalizer," prosecutors said.

On the day he wrote the manifesto, prosecutors said Genco also searched for sororities and a university in Ohio online, according to court records.

According to court records, investigators found that Genco conducted surveillance at the school on Jan. 15, 2020, prosecutors said.

The Cincinnati Inquirer reported that he wanted to conduct the shooting at the Ohio State University.

“Genco formulated a plot to kill women and intended to carry it out. Our federal and local law enforcement partners stopped that from happening,” said U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker said in a news release. “Hate has no place in our country – including gender-based hate – and we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to vigorously prosecute any such conduct.”

World soccer governing body FIFA will allow a variety of different armbands that highlight "a range of social causes" to be worn at the upcoming Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the organization said Friday.

Related video above: Equal pay for U.S. men's and women's soccer teams

"FIFA, in partnership with several United Nations agencies, will use the FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 to highlight a range of social causes, selected following extensive consultation with stakeholders including players and the 32 participating member associations," FIFA said in a statement.

Team captains will be allowed to wear an armband around eight different social causes, including gender equality, inclusion and peace, during the tournament, which FIFA says will reach an "estimated audience of over two billion people around the world."

"Football unites the world and our global events, such as the FIFA Women's World Cup, have a unique power to bring people together and provide joy, excitement and passion," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

"But football does even more than that – it can shine the spotlight on very important causes in our society. After some very open talks with stakeholders, including member associations and players, we have decided to highlight a series of social causes – from inclusion to gender equality, from peace to ending hunger, from education to tackling domestic violence – during all 64 matches at the FIFA Women's World Cup."

FIFA said that team captains will have three options: "They can wear the 'Football Unites the World' armband for the entire tournament; an armband corresponding to the theme of their choice for the entire tournament; or the armband corresponding to the theme of the specific matchday."

There will be "eight specific messages" during the tournament that fall under FIFA's global campaign titled "Football Unites the World," which are:

Unite for Inclusion – in partnership with UN Human Rights

Unite for Indigenous Peoples – in partnership with UN Human Rights

Unite for Gender Equality – in partnership with UN Women

Unite for Peace – in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency

Unite for Education for All – in partnership with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Unite for Zero Hunger – in partnership with the UN World Food Programme

Unite for Ending Violence Against Women – in partnership with UN Women

Football is Joy, Peace, Love, Hope & Passion – in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO)

At the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 the captains of several men's European teams did not wear "OneLove" armbands due to the danger of receiving yellow cards.

Several European teams were set to participate in the "OneLove" campaign to promote inclusion and oppose discrimination, but those countries were prevented by FIFA from doing so.

In a joint statement at the time, they said they had been told by the governing body that any "breaches of kit regulations" would result in on-field sanctions for the players.

The armbands, which featured a heart striped in different colors, became the center of huge controversy at the tournament, despite standing against all forms of discrimination – including solidarity with people of different genders and sexual identities.

In the absence of players not wearing the armbands, politicians watching their countries in Qatar – including Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister Hadja Lahbib and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser – had them on display while sitting close to Infantino.

There is no explicit mention of LGBTQ rights in Women's World Cup armbands, beyond the "themes" of "gender equality" and "inclusion."

The Women's World Cup is scheduled to be played from July 20 to August 20 with the opening game taking place in Auckland when co-hosts New Zealand play Norway.

WEST CHESTER TOWNSHIP, Ohio —

A West Chester man is charged with multiple counts of voyeurism in three separate cases in Butler and Hamilton counties.

Marty Worley, 21, is accused of spying on women and photographing them inside local department stores.

The latest criminal charge stems from an incident inside Target at the Voice of America shopping center on June 2.

A store employee called 911.

"I have a peeping Tom in the store right now," the caller said. "He's very blatant about it. He went up to this one woman seven times. He just took pictures of her right next to a child."

The caller said the man was photographing women and girls' backsides and up their skirts.

"He's just making laps. He's going around to another set of definitely minor girls. He's hunting. I mean, literally, I'm watching him hunt for girls right now. He's going to the makeup department where there's a bunch of little girls," the caller said.

While on the phone with a dispatcher, the employee said he watched Worley take inappropriate photos of a dozen customers. The employee said he couldn't take it anymore and ended up confronting Worley before police arrived.

"I can't let this happen in front of me anymore," the caller said.

According to a West Chester Township police report, two of the victims were 17 years old.

"That's disgusting and blows my mind," said Melissa Juneau, a Target shopper.

Another customer, Alauna Patten, said, "It's creepy all the way around, but girls, 17-year-olds, they don't know about the real world yet and probably never would have expected that."

This week, Worley was charged with voyeurism for that incident.

WLWT confirmed he's also been charged in two other similar cases.

On Jan. 17, West Chester police said Worley spied on a woman while she was trying on clothes in the dressing room at the Walmart on Cincinnati-Dayton Road for the "purpose of sexual arousal or gratification."

Three days after that, in Hamilton County, deputies said Worley recorded a woman in the dressing room at the Symmes Township Kohls.

WLWT tracked down Worley on Thursday.

"I don't want to talk to no news," he said.

He referred us to his attorney, Mike Allen. Allen said because the three cases are pending in court, it was too soon to discuss the case.

There's a growing awareness about concussions, but the discourse is typically centered around men.

"I do think a lot of the research that we see often is funded or associated in some way with men's professional sports. And so what comes along with that is a disproportionate focus on men and concussions among men," said Kathleen Bachynski, associate professor of Public Health at Muhlenberg College.

An analysis from the British Journal of Sports Medicine confirms that most concussion research has focused on men.

Researchers looked at the studies cited by the organizations that help guide concussion diagnosis and protocols.

They found the participants in those studies were 80% men.

"We definitely know that women are at risk of concussions. Not just in sports, but also military, intimate partner violence, many, many contexts, and from preliminary research it does seem like there may be some differences I don't think we fully understand. Yet, the extent to which some of those differences might be biological, some of it might be social or cultural, and some of them might be a mix," Bachynski said.

Bachynski is on the advisory board for Pink Concussions, a nonprofit group that advocates for more research on concussions in girls and women.

She notes that more funding is needed for better representation in studies.

The International Conference on Concussion in Sport will release a new statement this year that reflects the latest in concussion research. Some experts in the field are pushing for that statement to acknowledge the gender gap.

Jamie McKinney is an author, motivational speaker, and leadership coach. She's the president of JMD Consulting.

“Our mission is to empower women to ditch doubts, speak up and achieve the careers they deserve and desire,” McKinney said.

She is inspiring women worldwide and trying to lessen the gender confidence gap.

“The confidence gap actually starts when women are in middle school," McKinney said. "The sense of belonging outweighs a need for authenticity. Young women make decisions to dampen their confidence or to shrink their aspirations because they just want to fit in, and they don't want somebody to say something negative about their bravery, their courage, their confidence. Then fast forward to the working world and your authenticity is still in there. But if you've been practicing not speaking up, or not exercising your confidence, that's now what you know.”

McKinney says it’s a combination of nature and nurture. Reinforced gender stereotypes mean young girls are often encouraged to play with dolls, while young boys are typically steered toward more aggressive activities. Those experiences plant a seed which McKinney says often leads to a stark difference in one’s ability to be assertive.

“I want to be very careful when talking about the genders, is that it's not all men and all women, but his studies show there are trends,” McKinney said.

Research by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that even when their performance on a task or job is equal to a man's, women describe theirs less favorably. The impact can be quite substantial.

“Men ask for raises four times more often than women do, and when they do, they ask for 30 percent more," McKinney said. "There's an isolated incident that has a certain level of impact, but over the course of one's career, calculations show that that can equate to $1.5 million for an individual's compensation. $1.5 million dollars, simply because one didn't ask.”

McKinney, who started off her career life in male-dominated fields like the automotive and oil and gas industries wants to change that. She’s been coaching women through her three pillars of leadership program. Those three pillars include strengthening self, communicating powerfully and leveling up your career path.

One woman who went through that training to make a difference in her life is Nora Thomas.

“Confidence is definitely something I've struggled with all my life, but it didn't hit me that it was going to be this way for me in the professional world until I got out of college,” Thomas said.

She says McKinney inspired her to start her own marketing and community outreach business.

“I've noticed how important it is to set goals and kind of set that standard for yourself to be like, 'well, actually, where do I want to take this or where can I see myself improving?”

Thomas says a boost in confidence is helping her in all aspects of her life. She wants to encourage other women to take the same leap of faith she did to end the confidence gender gap.

“We unfortunately kind of do work in a world that is run by men and a lot of us and a lot of aspects, which isn't a bad thing, but it's harder for women to grow," Thomas said. "You know, they're hitting the glass ceiling and where are we supposed to go from there?”

McKinney says she hopes to see a world where her job is no longer needed because women feeling empowered to be their authentic selves will be the standard.

“Everyone is born with a certain amount of confidence and confidence is just like a muscle in that the more you build it and condition it and flex it, the more it grows," McKinney said.
 

Danielle Wade became well-known on Instagram for her posts about fashion and beauty products, but in the past four years, her feed has evolved after experiencing infertility.

“I found it to be very helpful and very therapeutic, actually, just talking about it because hiding that part of my life and just posting these beautiful photos in beautiful clothes and perfect makeup just didn't seem as genuine when I was struggling going through this process of trying to conceive,” Wade said.

Now, the lifestyle blogger and content creator says she's known as a woman who helps other women thrive during infertility.

“I've learned more people in my personal life have gone through infertility because I started talking about it,” Wade said.

Wade says she quickly realized there weren’t many other women who look like her being open about infertility. She wanted other Black women trying to conceive to know they’re not alone.

“Black women tend to report infertility issues at a higher rate than white women or non-Hispanic women," Wade said. "However, they're also the least likely to be able to access the care and treatment that they require to support and assist them in that process of going from having infertility to actually being able to successfully get pregnant.”

Dr. Yashica Robinson is an OBGYN and the owner of Alabama Women’s Wellness Center. She says there are many reasons disparities exist for Black women facing infertility.

“People of color are experiencing fertility at two-times the rate of their white counterparts,” Dr. Robinson said.

“The environmental stressors we know that plays a significant role in how our bodies function and our ability to carry our pregnancies to term," Dr. Robinson said. "Other contributing factors would be pre-existing medical conditions, obesity, hypertension, diabetes and our ability to access health care and optimize these health conditions prior to pregnancy.”

Infertility treatments are also very expensive, making them difficult to access.

“For those of us who don't have private insurance and we obtain our insurance through the government, then it doesn't cover those treatments at all,” Dr. Robinson said.

Dr. Robinson says physicians won’t even offer treatment as an option if they don’t feel it’s accessible to the patient. She says that assumption is sometimes made just through racial biases.

Lilly Marcelin is the founder and executive director of Resilient Sisterhood Project. It's an education and advocacy nonprofit that aims to empower women of African descent regarding common, but rarely discussed, diseases of the reproductive system that disproportionately affect them.

“So if you go on our website you’ll find a lot of well-researched information about complications with fibroids, endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, breast cancer, cervical cancer,” Marcelin said.

She says she felt inspired to create the nonprofit after talking with many Black women about their experience with reproductive health issues and attempts to seek care.

“Some of them revealed to me that as soon as they stepped in, just the way that they were received or looked at, they felt that somehow there was an assumption about can they afford to pay,” Marcelin said.

That reason is why Wade searched for a Black physician.

“I actually was specifically trying to find a Black fertility doctor, male or female, just kind of wanted to see if I could get connected with someone who looked like me, maybe better understood my health history and what specific experiences I was having in this process, dealing with health care, dealing with infertility," Wade said. "And I had no luck with that.”

Wade is currently in her first round of in-vitro fertilization. It’s the next step for her after four years of trying other methods. She plans to continue being transparent with her Instagram followers about her exhausting journey of trying to conceive.

“I want to be normal to talk about loss when it comes to infertility and miscarriages and stillbirths," Wade said. "I want it to be normal to talk about all the creative ways you have available to you to have babies. I want it to be normal for all insurances to cover all infertility treatment.”
 

The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing are officially opened after Friday’s Opening Ceremony and the competition later in the day will feature Team USA snowboarding star Jamie Anderson as well as the U.S. women's hockey team taking on Russia. Ski jumping, cross-country and freestyle skiing, speed skating, luge and more events are planned as well. The first six medals of the Games will be awarded.We’ll share livestream links below for what’s happening Friday evening and early Saturday. But first here’s how to catch up on top Olympics moments you may have missed. Here are the best video highlights from Day 0 at the Winter Olympics.| VIDEO | Nathan Chen wins team short program at 2022 Olympics| VIDEO | USA's Hubbell/Donohue score top rhythm dance in team eventMore Olympic moments videosBest of Day 0: Chen, Hubbell, Donahue among top performersROC nearly collides with Team USA in rhythm dance warmupsSmooth Criminals: Italy ice dancers channel Michael JacksonMueller/Dieck's rhythm dance as the Joker and Harley QuinnKnierim/Frazier nail their short in skating's team eventTeam USA defeats Sweden in mixed doubles curlingHow to watch the Opening Ceremony if you missed itDaylong coverage of the Olympics will culminate with NBC’s special primetime presentation of the Opening Ceremony from 8 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET on WLWT and Peacock and online here.Other ways to watch the Olympics include Sling TV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo TV and YouTube TV. Learn more about those streaming options here.Here’s a recap of what happened. | GALLERY BELOW | The must-see images of the 2022 Olympic opening ceremony Here are livestreams for notable events happening on Friday and early SaturdayNetwork livestreamsWatch NBC’s Winter Olympics Day Show starting at 2 p.m ETWatch USA networks coverage of curling, figure skating and more starting at 12 p.m. ET Watch NBC Primetime’s coverage of the Opening Ceremony starting at 8 p.m. ET Event livestreams on Friday eveningCurling mixed doubles round-robin: Watch Switzerland vs. Sweden at 8:05 p.m. ETCurling mixed doubles round-robin: Watch Australia vs. Norway at 8:05 p.m. ETSnowboarding: Women’s slopestyle qualifying starts at 9:45 p.m ET This event features South Lake Tahoe's Jamie Anderson, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in slopestyle.Alpine skiing: Men’s downhill training starts at 10 p.m. ET Hockey women’s prelim: Canada vs. Finland at 11:10 p.m ET Event livestreams early Saturday MEDAL EVENT | Cross-country skiing: Women’s skiathlon at 2:45 a.m. ET. (Watch for Team USA’s Jessie Diggins. Learn more about skiathlon here)MEDAL EVENT | Speed skating: Women’s 3000m at 3:30 a.m. ET (Watch for Mia Manganello Kilburg. Learn more about speed skating here)Hockey women’s prelim: Czech Republic vs. Sweden at 3:40 a.m. ETHockey women’s prelim: Denmark vs. Japan at 3:40 a.m. ETMEDAL EVENT | Biathlon: 4X6km mixed relay at 4 a.m. ET (Watch for Clare Egan, Susan Dunklee, Paul Schommer and Sean Doherty. Learn more about biathlon here)MEDAL EVENT |Ski jumping: Women’s individual normal hill final at 4:45 a.m. ETFreestyle skiing: Men’s moguls qualifying No. 2 at 5 a.m. ET MEDAL EVENT | Short track: Mixed relay finals, women’s 500m heats and men’s 1000m heats at 6 a.m. ET (Warch for Maame Biney and Kristen Santos. Learn more about short track here)Luge: Men’s singles luge runs 1 and 2 at 6:10 a.m. ET. (Watch for Chris Mazdzer. Learn more about luge here)MEDAL EVENT | Freestyle skiing: Men’s moguls finals at 6:25 a.m. ET (Watch for Cole McDonald and Dylan Walcyz)Curling mixed doubles round-robin: Norway vs. China at 7:05 a.m. ETCurling mixed doubles round-robin: Czech Republic vs. Switzerland at 7:05 a.m. ETCurling mixed doubles round-robin: USA vs. Canada at 7:05 a.m. ET. (Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys)Curling mixed doubles round-robin: Great Britain vs. Italy at 7:05 a.m. ETHockey women’s prelim: USA vs. ROC at 8:10 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — Should women register for the draft?

For years the answer has been no. However, that could change when the Senate debates and votes on the National Defense Authorization Act.

WOMEN IN MILITARY

From female fighter pilots to women completing Navy Seal training to General Lori Robinson commanding NORAD, women are ubiquitous in the military— even though men may still make up the majority.

According to military.com, a nonpartisan military news publication, women account for 20% of new recruits and 16% of active duty personal.

SELECTIVE SERVICE REGISTRATION

For over 100 years, only young men have been required to register for the draft.

The United States Senate is taking up the National Defense Authorization Act this month. In addition to addressing military pay and other benefits, senators are set to consider whether women should register with the Selective Service when they turn 18.

Professor Jen Spindel of the University of New Hampshire noted the significance of the potential change.

"It really is the first moment that including women in the draft seems like it might pass," Spindel told Scripps' National Political Editor Joe St. George.

If it passes it would mean women, just like men, who are between the ages of 18 to 25 would have to go to the selective website and submit their name, address and social security information.

In theory, that would be it.

The United States hasn't actually used the draft since 1973, relying on volunteers to staff the military.

However, Spindel explains that many worse-case scenarios highlight the U.S. being at a disadvantage for not including women presently.

“By excluding women from the draft, should the U.S. ever need to activate the draft, they would be missing out on a lot of skills that women bring,” Spindel said.

The ACLU has called this one of the last remaining sexist policies by the federal government, advocating for it to change.

But there is conservative opposition.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley has said it is “immoral” to draft young women into combat.

It's unclear exactly how this will play out in Congress but a final decision is expected in the coming weeks.

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — For U.S. Army veteran Laura Evans, the world of computers wasn’t one that she ever pictured herself in.

“I am Latina and my family is from Colombia. I'm a first-generation American,” she said. “No one in my family is a software engineer and no one in my family was in the military. So, I've always kind of felt like I’ve translated my life, throughout my life.”

After 15 years, having reached the rank of Staff Sergeant, Evans decided to try something new.

“I heard about Operation Level Up and it really piqued my interest,” she said.

Operation Level Up is run by Galvanize, a technology education company. They help train service members transitioning out of the military and into the world of high tech.

“One thing I try to do for my students is really highlight for them, like what their military experience has done for them and how to leverage that,” said Galvanize’s Caroline Virani.

Speaking with us at Galvanize’s New York City offices, Virani said the company is doing something else, too. They are specifically focusing on women veterans to get them into high-tech jobs.

“It's definitely a huge, huge need that we see and is part of the work that we're doing,” she said.

In the technology sector, women make up only about 28% of the workforce. In the U.S. military, enlisted men far outnumber women, who only make up about 16% of the Armed Forces.

“Women are underrepresented in the tech industry anyways. Women also are less represented in the military,” Virani said. “So, we're kind of dealing with both of those things at once.”

Both are also things Laura Evans has experienced firsthand.

“To me, it was more building up that confidence as a woman in tech and as a female veteran,” Evans said. “You know, veterans are capable of so many things in so many different industries, in so many different facets, that we can't even imagine.”

She graduated from Operation Level Up and went on to work as a software engineer and is now a program manager.

“I kind of did a very, very sharp right turn into a completely different industry,” Evans said, “and I haven't looked back since and I've been so happy honestly.”

It’s something she hopes other women veterans can experience, too.

AUSTIN, Texas —

Most abortions in Texas are banned again after clinics that had raced to provide them during a two-day legal reprieve canceled appointments Saturday following a whiplash appeals court ruling.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a one-page order Friday night, reinstating a Texas law that prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks — and before some women know they’re pregnant.

Enforcement of the nation’s strictest abortion law is left up to private citizens who are deputized to file civil lawsuits against abortion providers, as well as others who help a woman obtain an abortion in Texas. Since taking effect in September, clinics in other states, including neighboring Louisiana and Oklahoma, have been inundated with patients from Texas.

Friday’s order from the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit is just the latest in the legal battle over the Texas law, known as Senate Bill 8. It came two days after a federal judge in Austin suspended the law, allowing providers to resume abortions.

Here are some questions and answers about the law and what’s next:

WHAT HAS BEEN THE IMPACT?

Abortion providers say the ramifications have been punishing and “exactly what we feared.” Some women are being forced to carry pregnancies to term, they say, or waiting in hopes that courts will strike down the law.

More than 100 pages of court filings in September offered the most comprehensive glimpse at how the near-total ban on abortion in Texas has played out. Physicians and executives at Texas’ nearly two dozen abortion clinics described turning away hundreds of patients, and some who showed up for appointments could not proceed because cardiac activity had been detected.

One Planned Parenthood location in Houston normally performed about two dozen abortions daily, but in the 10 days after the law took effect, the clinic had done a total of 52.

Clinics in nearby states, meanwhile, say care for their own residents is being delayed to accommodate women making long trips from Texas. Doctors say recent patients from Texas have included rape victims, as the law makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

Whole Women’s Health has four clinics in Texas and was among providers that performed abortions in the state Thursday and Friday, after the lower court ruling allowed them. President and CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller said she didn’t have the number of abortions performed during the reprieve.

WHAT WAS THE LANDSCAPE IN TEXAS BEFORE?

More than 55,000 abortions were performed last year in Texas, which already had some of the nation's strictest abortion laws, including a ban after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion providers in Texas have experience when it comes to abruptly ramping up operations again. In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, abortions in Texas were all but banned for weeks under orders by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that postponed surgeries “not immediately medically necessary."

But providers were reporting staffing issues and worried some clinics would permanently shutter. A decade ago, Texas had more than 40 abortion clinics, but more than half of them closed for good during a protracted legal battle over a 2013 law that was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The Biden administration could bring the case back to the Supreme Court and ask the justices to quickly restore the federal judge's order that blocked the law.

The law has already made one trip to the Supreme Court. The justices voted 5-4 not to intervene to prevent it from taking effect, but they said further challenges were possible. With the Biden administration’s challenge underway, the law could return to the justices quickly.

The federal judge who suspended the law — Robert Pitman, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama — wrote in a blistering 113-page opinion that the law was an “offensive deprivation” of the constitutional right to an abortion.

Whether the Biden administration’s lawsuit — which calls it “clearly unconstitutional” — was likely to succeed was a factor in Pitman putting the law on hold.

Texas Right to Life, the state's largest anti-abortion group and a driver of the new law, has cheered the fact that it has stopped abortions every day that it has been in effect.

HOW ARE OTHER STATES RESPONDING?

After Texas' law went into effect, Republican lawmakers in at least half a dozen states said they would consider introducing similar bills, with the goal of enacting the kind of abortion crackdown they have sought for years. Those states include Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Meanwhile, two dozen state attorneys general, all Democrats, submitted a brief in the Biden administration’s lawsuit saying a substantial reduction of abortion access in one state would result in health care systems being burdened elsewhere.

The City Council in Portland, Oregon, briefly considered a boycott of Texas businesses because of the new law but instead decided to set aside $200,000 to fund reproductive care.

The growing anti-abortion campaign is intended to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Abortion opponents hope the conservative coalition assembled under President Donald Trump will end the constitutional right to abortion as established by the high court in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

It’s estimated that by the end of this year, approximately 30% of new cancer diagnoses for women will be for breast cancer.

One in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes. But there are also nearly 4 million breast cancer survivors in the United States, which means breast cancer can be treated and managed if it’s caught early.

Dr. Lori Frederick with Oklahoma University's Health Breast Health Network said women should get yearly mammograms starting at age 40, regardless of family history.

"We know that breast cancer is most commonly not related to your family history, so that’s kind of a misconception out there," she said.

She recommended 3D mammograms whenever possible.

"It helps us identify cancer that may be hidden – with the 3D imaging," she said.

Men can also get breast cancer, although it is much rarer. The National Breast Cancer Foundation estimates about 2,700 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.

Although we are still in a pandemic, it’s important not to neglect yearly screenings. Frederick said she is seeing things pick back up.

"I think the word got out that you need to come in and get this done," she said.

It could save your life.

CINCINNATI —

A 40-year-old hiring and promotion policy that helped more women and minorities in the Cincinnati Police Department has been ruled unconstitutional.

The policy was born out of the 1981 consent decree, an effort to improve diversity within the ranks of the Cincinnati police department.

A federal ruling acknowledges that the consent decree has "positively affected the composition of CPD." But a federal judge ruled Thursday that the race-based and sex-based initiative is no longer needed.

The consent decree was signed onto by several parties including the city of Cincinnati, Cincinnati police department and Department of Justice in 1981, at a time women and minorities faced discrimination in hiring and promotion in the department.

The consent decree contains race-based and sex-based hiring and promotional goals for each recruit class and sergeant cohort. Under those goals, the department aimed to make each recruit class 34 percent Black and 23 percent female and to fill 25 percent of sergeant openings with black and female candidates.

According to the federal ruling, in July of 1980, 9.9 percent of the department was Black and 3.4 percent was female.

In January 2021, 28.3 percent of the department was Black and 22.9 percent was female.

The police department has 90 days to confer with the Department of Justice and submit modifications to the consent decree.

"We certainly wish the DOJ did not take this action as the consent decree has been important to our progress," Mayor John Cranley said in a statement. "We are evaluating all options to appeal and will do so if possible. We won't stop pressing our case."

The reconsideration of the hiring and promotion rule was prompted by a lawsuit filed by Erik Kohler, a Cincinnati police sergeant.

"Erik Kohler was promoted, but his promotion was delayed because the city promoted other candidates for sergeant ahead of him simply based on their race, even though they had a lower score on the promotional eligibility list," said his attorney Zachary Gottesman.

The federal ruling Thursday does not apply directly to Kohler's case but Gottesman said it is a win for them.

"Race-based and gender-based promotion and hiring programs can be legal if they meet very strict criteria, and the city has known for years and years that their policy did not comply with those legal requirements," Gottesman said.

JACKSON, Miss. —

The Mississippi State Department of Health has received reports of eight pregnant women dying from COVID-19 in the past several weeks, according to State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs.

Dobbs said all of the women were unvaccinated. The babies were born premature, but are alive, Dobbs said.

"COVID is especially problematic and dangerous for pregnant women. We also know it can be deadly for the baby in the womb," Dobbs said. "With COVID, we've seen a doubling of the rate of fetal demise, or the death of the baby in the womb after 20 weeks. It's been a real tragedy."

Dobbs said the COVID-19 vaccines are "remarkably" effective in preventing deaths in pregnant women and their unborn babies. The state health department is working to get the message to pregnant women that the vaccine is safe and available to protect "the most vulnerable in our community."

Health officials added 1,934 new COVID-19 cases to Mississippi's tally and 102 additional deaths on Wednesday. Dobbs said nearly half of Mississippians have received at least one dose.

State epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said, after a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the number of deaths lags behind.

"In August, over 93,000 cases to date. Some of the cases reported now still have deaths from that August timeframe, so it continues to increase," Byers said.

Byers said there has also been a decrease in the number of students and teachers who are on quarantine after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

A group of Afghan women activists staged a small protest in Taliban-controlled Kabul Friday calling for equal rights and full participation in political life, CNN has confirmed.

In spite of the risk, a group called the Women's Political Participation Network marched on the street in front of Afghanistan's Finance Ministry, chanting slogans and holding signs demanding involvement in the Afghan government and calling for constitutional law.

Footage showed a brief confrontation between a Taliban guard and some of the women, and a man's voice could be heard saying, "Go away!" before chanting resumed.

Video above: Taliban special forces stop women's protest

The gathering was relatively small — video of the scene livestreamed by the group showed just a few dozen demonstrators — but represented an unusual public challenge to Taliban rule.

The militant group are involved in internal discussions about forming a government but have already signaled that working women should stay at home, and militants have in some instances ordered women to leave their workplaces.

Taliban leaders insist publicly that women will play a prominent role in society and have access to education. But the group's public statements about adhering to their interpretation of Islamic values have stoked fears that there will be a return to the harsh policies of Taliban rule two decades ago when women all but disappeared from public life.

Some Afghan women are already staying home out of fears for their safety, and some families are buying all-covering burqas for female relatives.

The demonstration in Kabul comes one day after women staged a similar demonstration in Afghanistan's western city of Herat. Women in that protest held a large sign that said, "No government can be long lasting without the support of women. Our demands: The right to education and the right to work in all areas."

Lina Haidari, a protester at the Herat demonstration, said the "rights and achievements of women, which we have worked and fought for over 20 years must not be ignored" under Taliban rule, according to video of the event from Getty Images.

"I want to say that I was forced to stay at home for the crime of being a student 20 years ago," Haidari said in footage gathered by the agency, "And now 20 years later, for the crime of being a teacher and a woman."

The protests come amid heightened fears over security under Taliban rule. A prominent Afghan activist said she did not take part in the Herat demonstration because of a direct threat. ​She spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity, fearing even expressing interest in the demonstration could subject her to reprisal.

Uncertain future

Last month, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said women should not go to work for their own safety, undermining the group's efforts to convince international observers that the group would be more tolerant towards women than when they were last in power.

Mujahid said the guidance to stay at home would be temporary and would allow the group to find ways to ensure that women are not "treated in a disrespectful way" or "God forbid, hurt." He admitted the measure was necessary because the Taliban's soldiers "keep changing and are not trained."

Worries about women's fate prompted the World Bank to announce the same day that it was halting financial aid to the cash-strapped country.

In the early months of the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan, women were increasingly isolated from society and became targets of harassment and attacks — including the high-profile murder of three female journalists in March.

In early July, insurgents walked into the offices of Azizi Bank in the southern city of Kandahar and ordered nine women working there to leave, Reuters reported. The female bank tellers were told that male relatives would take their place.

Pashtana Durrani, the founder and executive director of Learn, a nonprofit agency focused on education and women's rights, said last month that she had run out of tears for her country: "We have been ... mourning the fall of Afghanistan for now quite some time. So I'm not feeling very well. On the contrary, I'm feeling very hopeless."

"The situation right now is very dire," Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director for the Human Rights Watch, said.

As the Taliban take control of Afghanistan, women and girls are beginning to live under the return of a very dark reality. 

"The Taliban ruled over Afghanistan for five years until 2001, and they harbored al-Qaeda. Their rule was ghastly, and it was harsh, and there are many concerns that the rights of women over the past 20 years could be rolled back in an instant," Aya Batrawy, Gulf correspondent for the Associated Press, said.

Across the country, observers report the Taliban has already become violent against women and girls for not obeying Islamic extremism rules that reject western influence.  

Nilofar is a displaced teacher from the Takhar province. She says the Taliban recently lashed girls from her school for their choice of footwear, sandals, that were too revealing. 

"They are already also seeking out people that were associated with the current government. We are aware of a number of executions of people have been taken into Taliban custody," Gossman said.

As reports surface of girls being told not to attend school, the Taliban says education will be allowed, so long as "Islamic Sharia laws are not neglected."

"When we consider women and girls, all those who've had their lives advanced, this is searing. It is hard stuff," Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC News.

Some women are even being told to stay home and give their jobs to male relatives. 

"I am worried about the women who are vocal, but more importantly, I’m more worried about the girls who cannot talk, who don't have a platform, who cannot represent themselves," Pashtana Dorani, executive director of LEARN, said.

And this may be the beginning.

Meg Hilling at Newsy first reported this story.

SHELBYVILLE, K.y. — For Emily Hernandez, transitioning from sergeant in the Army to civilian took a toll she did not expect.

"I was just ready for the next chapter, and then when I started working on the civilian side, I just went into work, work, work. 'Cause that's what I was used to. And I started to feel so alone," she said.

After seven years of active duty in the Army and a tour in Afghanistan, Emily went back to her hometown of Shelbyville, Kentucky with her son and husband. When she got back to friends and family, something was missing – she could no longer relate to the people around her.

"I noticed it when I was working night shift and when I would come home, it was about a 20-minute drive. There's not a lot of cars on the road and you're just able to like, sit there with your thoughts. That's when I started to think, I was like, 'man, life is a lot different,'" she said.

In the U.S. – there are two million female veterans and although women make up only 9% of the military, it’s the fastest growing military and veteran population.

In a study published by Boston Medical Center this year, it was found that although female veterans were younger with less combat experience, they were more likely to have lifetime PTSD, depression, suicidal thoughts, and more likely to use lifetime mental health services, compared to male veterans.

Sherry Whitehouse says the root of the mental obstacles for many female veterans is finding the understanding and a sense of identity they had in service in their new role as a civilian. It’s something she struggled with until she found it in helping others like her – at Veterans Club.

"Our ladies definitely have been under served in the past and I'm grateful to the veterans club for allowing that space to be open, safe and supported," said Whitehouse.

The Kentucky-based organization helps more than 6,000 veterans by providing that missing link of understanding – providing healing through connection. Founder Jeremy Harrell said they started a women-only group because the need was great.

"It's a rare thing from what I understand and it shouldn't be, and we hope that this helps others go, 'We should probably do that too,' because there's some women out there who gave their all for the defense of this country. That are hurting because they don't feel like anybody cares," said Harrell.

Whitehouse is the leader of that program, helping women to open up and own every aspect of their self.

"That's one of the things that I've worked really hard to change just across the board with our ladies that it's okay to stand up, It's okay to say I served. It's okay to say that I need help," she said.

Though Hernandez has gone back into the service, she says the connections she's made at Veteran's Club with other women have helped her greatly.

"I didn't want to admit somethings in my own self-reflection. So when I would hear people in the veterans club explain their stories and it sounded a lot like mine. that's when I started feeling like, 'Oh, like I needed this.' And I think that equally they need me as well," she said.

She hopes other women take the step in finding a community that understands.

"Reach out and understand that you're not alone and once the military's over or even if it's not, you know, there's a big group of people that are here and we want to welcome you with open arms," said Hernandez.

Although Veterans Club is based in Kentucky, they are hoping to connect people across the country.

If you or someone you know believes they can benefit from their services, visit their website by clicking on this link.

Health experts are stressing the importance of an annual mammogram, even during a pandemic, but warning that undergoing the screening too close to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine could impact what comes up on that scan.

A mammogram takes an X-ray picture of the breast to detect early signs of breast cancer.

"Regular mammograms are the best tests doctors have to find breast cancer early, sometimes up to three years before it can be felt," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“You never want to ignore anything that’s going on in your breast. If you feel a lump or have any pain then certainly come and see us,” said Dr. Kelly Cronin, the medical director and section head of breast imaging at Wake Forest Baptist Health in North Carolina.

Cronin explained that during a mammogram, the image often captures “up into the underarm area, which is where a lot of lymph nodes will live.” She said after a vaccine, like the COVID-19 vaccine, lymph nodes under the arm can become swollen, mirroring one of the early detection signs screeners look for in mammogram images.

Cronin said Wake Forest Baptist Health is encouraging women to keep coming in for the annual exam, but to ensure it is two to four weeks after receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to ensure there isn’t unnecessary confusion or worry for patients and their families.

Novant Health’s Dr. David Priest said they’re suggesting patients wait four to six weeks between second doses and mammogram appointments.

“Lymph nodes tend to swell after vaccination because the immune system is responding to the vaccine,” Priest said. “To prevent confusion or false results on a mammogram, we’re recommending that women should consider scheduling their routine screening mammograms.”

Priest stressed the guidance was for regular, screening mammograms. Women with symptoms, with abnormalities or concerns, should not delay, he noted. Priest encouraged women to discuss timing with their providers.

Cronin said, at Wake Forest, mammograms are being done with COVID-19 precautions in place.

“Getting a routine, annual mammogram is so important,” Cronin said. “If you haven’t had a mammogram in over a year and you’re over 40, certainly come back in and get that scheduled. We’ll get it taken care of safely.”

Both medical systems put out the recommendations following the Society of Breast Imaging’s guidance on the matter.

Related video: U.S. gymnastics team boarded a flight to Tokyo

The team’s outfits looked similar to the others in the room as the arena lights gleamed off crystals crisscrossing their chests and down their crimson and white sleeves.

But the German gymnastics team’s new Olympic suits didn’t stop at their hips.

For decades, female gymnasts have worn bikini-cut leotards. In qualifying on Sunday, however, the German team instead wore unitards that stretched to their ankles, intending to push back against sexualization of women in gymnastics.

The Tokyo Olympics are the first Summer Games since Larry Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics national team doctor, was sent to prison for 176 years for sexually abusing hundreds of gymnasts, including some of the sport's greatest stars. At his sentencing, athletes — some of them Olympians — described how the sport’s culture allowed for abuse and objectification of young women and girls.

Male gymnasts wear comparatively body-covering clothes: singlets, with loose shorts for their floor exercise and vault, and long pants on bar and pommel horse routines.

The German team first wore unitards at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in April.

Sarah Voss, a 21-year-old German, said they weren't sure they would decide to wear them again during Olympic competition until they got together before the meet.

“We sat together today and said, OK, we want to have a big competition," Voss said. “We want to feel amazing, we want to show everyone that we look amazing."

Their wardrobe revolution, while widely championed, has not so far started a trend. Leotards that leave the legs bare were worn by every other female gymnast during qualifying at the Tokyo Games.

At 4-foot-8, American superstar Simone Biles said in June that she prefers leotards because they lengthen the leg and make her appear taller.

“But I stand with their decision to wear whatever they please and whatever makes them feel comfortable,” Biles said. “So if anyone out there wants to wear a unitard or leotard, it’s totally up to you.”

Matt Cowan, the chief commercial officer for GK Elite, the U.S.’ premier leotard manufacturer, said most requests for unitards now come from countries the require modesty for cultural and religious reasons. They have otherwise seen no rush toward catsuits.

“Would we do it? Absolutely. We have the capabilities of designing it and doing it, and we have done it," Cowan said. "But from a consumer demand perspective, we are not there yet.”

Gymnastics is often viewed as a sport best performed by very young women and girls. Biles, at 24, often jokes about being old; she recently called herself a grandma on social media.

But other nations have defied that emphasis on youth, including the Germans: Elisabeth Seitz is 27, Kim Bui is 32, Pauline Schafer is 24, and Voss is 21. Their average age of 26. Voss said that gymnastics customs should leave room for female bodies as they age and change.

Their outfits comply with the wardrobe rules of the International Gymnastics Federation. But that doesn’t mean female athletes are generally free to cover their bodies as they choose.

Just days before the Games began, the Norwegian women’s beach handball team refused to play in bikini bottoms during European tournaments, opting instead for skin-tight shorts. For that, they received a fine for violating a wardrobe requirement.

But at gymnastics qualifying Sunday, the announcer over the loudspeaker called the outfits “very nice indeed." The German team did not qualify for finals, but the announcer pondered if their team debut on the Olympic stage might increase unitards' popularity.

TOKYO —

On the Olympic podium, three teenage girls — 13, 13 and 16 — with weighty gold, silver and bronze medals around their young necks, rewards for having landed tricks on their skateboards that most kids their age only get to see on Instagram.

After decades in the shadows of men's skateboarding, the future for the sport's daring, trailblazing women suddenly looked brighter than ever at the Tokyo Games on Monday.

It's anyone's guess how many young girls tuned in to watch Momiji Nishiya of Japan win the debut Olympic skateboarding event for women, giving the host nation a sweep of golds in the street event after Yuto Horigome won the men's event.

But around the world, girls trying to convince their parents that they, too, should be allowed to skate can now point to the 13-year-old from Osaka as an Olympic-sized example of skateboarding's possibilities.

The silver went to Rayssa Leal, also 13 — Brazil's second silver in skateboarding after Kelvin Hoefler finished second on Sunday in the men's event.

The women's bronze went to Funa Nakayama of Japan.

The event was celebrated as a win for women by many of the 20 competitors.

The field included Leticia Bufoni of Brazil, whose board was snapped in two by her dad when she was a kid to try to stop her from skating. There was a Canadian, Annie Guglia, who didn't see any other girls skate during her first two years on her board.

And there were plenty of others for whom the Olympic competition felt like a light at the end of a long tunnel.

"It's going to change the whole game," U.S. skater Mariah Duran said. "This is like opening at least one door to, you know, many skaters who are having the conversations with their parents, who want to start skating.

"I'm not surprised if there's probably already like 500 girls getting a board today."

Without Gussie Wallace, the Apollo 11 astronauts might not have made it back to earth. This week, the Cincinnati area and the space community both were mourning her death.

"She did a lot of hard work," said Glenda Davis, Wallace's daughter, in 2019. "She came home tired many days."

Wallace worked for Avco in 1969, developing new technology for the first lunar module. Her team specifically worked on the digital uplink assembly, which she said helped make sure the lunar module could get from the moon's surface back to the orbiting spacecraft overhead.

Services will take place Saturday at the Greater Emanuel Apostolic Temple on Galbraith Road.

Watch WCPO's prior coverage of Wallace here:

Local woman was a "hidden figure" behind scenes of moon landing

These days, it’s easy to list off a number of respected, well-known female directors — consider Greta Gerwig, Olivia Wilde, and Ava DuVernay, to name a few. But it wasn’t so long ago that Hollywood was, by and large, a boys' club. While we’ve still got a long way to go — it’s been 11 long years since a woman took home the Oscar for Best Director — we’ve certainly taken big steps toward more equitable film sets. In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re taking a look back at some of the epic strides made in the industry, paying homage to 24 of the best movies directed by women.

A few will come as no surprise: We’d be remiss not to mention "Yentl," for instance, for which Barbra Streisand, in 1984, became the first woman to ever win a directing Golden Globe. It's a feat that would not be achieved by a female director again until this year, when Chloe Zhao won for "Nomadland." Other titles simply struck a chord deep within viewers, sparking joy, fear, sadness, rage, hope, or any combination of the above. So pour yourself of glass and wine and settle in for the best female-directed films of all time.

Related video above: Olympic surfing bittersweet for Native Hawaiians

Johanne Defay of France was devastated when the mega sponsor Roxy dropped her right before she became a pro surfer in 2014, shattering her confidence and threatening her career altogether.

"They were just like 'Oh, you don't look this way, you know, for, like, pictures," Defay said. "And I just felt like I was never doing enough or I wasn't fitting in, in the way that they wanted for their brand."

Now, Defay is headed to the Tokyo Olympics for surfing's debut at the Summer Games, buoyed by an upset win against reigning world champion Carissa Moore at the high-intensity Surf Ranch competition last month.

Though there's much excitement and renewed enthusiasm for the women's game, years of objectification, pay disparities and an opportunity gap have taken their toll. Industry leaders from the professional World Surf League and the developmental USA Surfing say they're committed to righting the wrongs that have long held female surfers back in the male-dominated sport.

The mental, financial and logistical roadblocks for women in surfing date back centuries.

Hawaiians who invented the sport treated it as an egalitarian national pastime that all genders, ages and social classes enjoyed, according to Isaiah Helekunihi Walker, a Hawaii surfing historian. But Christian missionaries who arrived on the island tried to ban surfing in large part because of nudity — surfing naked was common at the sports' inception. Though locals largely defied the colonizers, female surfers saw their ranks shrink disproportionately.

"When it comes to controlling nudity, it's about controlling female bodies," said Walker, also a BYU-Hawaii history professor.

Even for Moore, the child prodigy who could beat the boys before growing up to be — at 18 years old — the youngest World Surf League champion in history, said she's also struggled with her body image. Moore is 28 now and has spoken openly about starving herself as a teenager, only to binge eat later, and once even trying to force herself to throw up.

"Everyone had this idea of what a surfer girl should look like. And there were a lot of 'hot lists' or the 'cutest surfer girl list,'" Moore said. "I never made them, but then you see who actually made them and you feel like: 'Oh, I guess, like, that's what I should look like.'"

Modern day professional surfing in a previous iteration had a decentralized approach that left brand sponsors in charge of many of the competition logistics, which would vary widely from one event to another, said Greg Cruse, USA Surfing CEO. And though it wasn't an official rule or standard, there was clearly a preference for the men's game.

Surfing schedules are determined in the morning based on what the ocean waves are like, and it was no secret that the boys' and men's competitions would be given the best surf conditions, usually in the morning. Female surfers took the scraps, if they were invited at all.

"There'd be the event directors and they would kind of schedule things the way they wanted to schedule and there would be bias from the outdated patriarchy. It's changed immensely," Cruse said. "It took a while for the women to complain about it."

A turning point came in 2013, when new ownership took over the professional league and the rebranded WSL began to prioritize standardizing the competitions and rebuilding the women's events, said Jessi Miley-Dyer, a retired pro surfer who now runs the WSL's competition as senior vice president.

In 2019, the WSL as the leaders of the $10 billion surfing industry also began offering equal prize money for all its events, making it one of the few professional sports leagues to achieve pay equity.

"It was an important statement to make around the value of our athletes. More than anything, it speaks to the emphasis on women's surfing. We believe men and women are valued the same," Miley-Dyer said. "It's the right thing to do."

The announcement was emotional for many, including Miley-Dyer. Back in 2006 when she won a pro event, she earned just $10,000 — a third of what the top male surfer took home.

"I cried because it means so much," Miley-Dyer said. "I had also retired, so it wasn't something for me, but it felt something to me and so many people like me."

Next year will be the first time the WSL will include its women surfers at the famous Pipe Masters competition, allowing them the chance to ride the Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii, considered by many the best waves in the world.

The WSL has also committed to hosting the same number of events and in the same locations for both the men and women, though the competition at the highest level today still has twice as many male competitor spots — 36 — compared to the women's game.

In terms of skill and experience, the damage caused by decades of sexism has not yet been fully reversed.

It used to be that girls could begin competitive surfing training at about 11 years old while boys began as early as 4, Cruse said, adding that USA Surfing has closed this experience gap.

And surfboard makers, like many male leaders in the sport, used to believe that girls and women weren't strong enough to paddle or ride powerfully enough to pull off airs, or aerial maneuvers, so they were given bigger surfboards that are physically easier to ride, but limited their ability to progress into more explosive moves.

So while airs have for years become the gold standard in the men's competition, it is rarely done by the top female surfers today. Moore, the U.S. surfer to beat at the Olympics, is the first woman to land an air during competition, a milestone achieved just recently but has no doubt electrified the women's game and its future.

"They started demanding getting the same type of equipment that allows you to generate more speed and turn sharper and harder," Cruse said. "Right now, there's a group of girls coming up. The girls under 16 are better at airs than any of the women in the WSL. They already have the air game and it's next level and there's going to be a changing of the guard."

For Defay, she persevered during her first year without corporate backing. She remembers feeling humiliated hearing others take for granted their private car services arranged by their sponsors after Defay arrived on a two-hour bus ride in order to save money.

She's thankful fellow pro surfer Jeremy Flores helped sponsor her "insane" rookie season, as a nine-month season can cost as much as $80,000 in travel costs alone.

Now, they're equals, teammates in Japan on the French Olympic surfing team.

The 27-year-old Defay's journey to the pros has made her hungrier than ever to prove her talents and worth at the world's most elite sporting event. And she'll do it with the body she has learned to appreciate, regardless of how any sponsor may have judged her before.

Though Roxy didn't respond to requests for comment on Defay's past sponsorship deal, the surfer declares this:

"I like my shoulders now and my butt," Defay said with a smirk. "It's just what it is and what makes me surf this way, so I try to celebrate it."

London’s police department is under scrutiny for the way officers handled some participants at an unofficial vigil Saturday night for a London woman whose death led to murder charges against a fellow officer and spurred a national conversation about violence against women in the U.K.

Hundreds of people disregarded a judge's ruling and police requests by gathering at Clapham Common in honor of Sarah Everard, 33, who last was seen alive near the south London park on March 3. Demonstrators said they wanted to draw attention to the fear and danger many women see as a daily part of British life.

Everard disappeared while walking home from a friend’s apartment at about 10:30 p.m. and was found dead a week later. The slaying sent shockwaves across the U.K. because a Metropolitan Police officer is charged with her kidnapping and murder.

Video of Saturday's informal vigil turned rally showed officers from the same police force tussling with participants as they pushed their way through the crowd. At one point, several male officers grabbed hold of several women and pulled them away in handcuffs to screaming and shouting from onlookers, Britain's Press Association reported.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan decried the police actions.

“The police have a responsibility to enforce COVID laws, but from images I’ve seen it’s clear the response was at times neither appropriate nor proportionate,” Khan said on Twitter.

Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted that she had asked the Metropolitan Police for a full report on what happened.

The gathering happened hours after London constable Wayne Couzens, 48, appeared in court for the first time since his arrest in Everard's death. As Metropolitan Police officers approached the Clapham Common bandstand on Saturday evening, boos, jeers and shouts of “Shame on you” came from the crowd, according to the Press Association.

Organizers had hoped to hold “Reclaim the Streets” vigils in Everard’s memory at the south London location and in other U.K. cities on Saturday but canceled the in-person events after a judge refused to grant an order allowing them to go on despite coronavirus restrictions that bar mass gatherings.

Hundreds of people showed up nonetheless. Before police moved in, many participants laid flowers at the park bandstand. Among them was Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, who was seen pausing for a moment in front of the sea of flowers.

Other people held signs reading “We will not be silenced” and “She was just walking home,” and the crowd chanted, “Sisters united will never be defeated.”

In the wake of Everard’s disappearance and killing, many women have taken to social media to share their own experiences of being threatened or attacked while walking outside.

A 33-year-old nurse who works in the Clapham area, Mel Clarke, said she felt “very conflicted” about attending Saturday's gathering because of pandemic restrictions, but in the end "just felt that I needed to be here.”

“I’m really pleased that there are a lot of men here. I hope that this is kind of an opportunity for men to learn how women feel, how vulnerable we are," Clarke said. “I hope that this is the start of justice being served for Sarah.”

The Metropolitan Police has expressed shock and horror that one of its own was a suspect in the case. The London police force said Couzens joined its ranks in 2018 and most recently served in the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, an armed unit responsible for guarding embassies in the capital and Parliament.

During his court appearance earlier in the day, Couzens stood wearing a gray tracksuit as the charges were read to him. He was remanded into custody and has another appearance scheduled Tuesday at London’s Central Criminal Court.

Everard's body was found hidden in an area of woodland in Kent, more than 50 miles southeast of London, on Wednesday, a week after she went missing. A post-mortem examination is underway, police said Friday.

TV and radio presenter Sandi Toksvig said at the start of a vigil held online Saturday that a “cultural shift about how women are viewed and treated both in the public and private space” was needed.

“I am filled in equal measure with profound sorrow and rage, and I know there are many who share this rage, and I think it is entirely justifiable," Toksvig said. "But I also know that it will harm rather than help us if we don’t try and direct that anger to good purpose.”

Successfully getting humans into space and back is risky business. However, it was made possible less than a century ago thanks to help from some extraordinary Black women known as ‘Hidden Figures’.

“My name is Duchess Harris and I’m the co-author of a book called ‘Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA’ and my grandmother was Miriam Daniel Mann and she was one of the first hidden human computers at NASA," Harris said.

Harris, and American studies professor, has dedicated a lot of time to researching the legacy of her grandmother.

“The Hidden Figures were Black women who were human computers at NASA," Harris said. "And human computers were women who checked the math of engineers who were men and this was because women weren’t allowed to become engineers until the mid-1960s."

They were called human computers because this was before IBM mainframe computers. Acting NASA chief historian Brian Odom says their calculations were essential to engineers.

“When they’d get all this data back from a test – wind tunnel testing, any type of testing like that, plotting trajectories – it was the job of those women to kind of crunch the numbers, to do the math,” Odom said.

Harris says her grandmother had the opportunity to go to college, which was a big deal considering she was born only 40 years after slavery was abolished. However, women of color like her first broke into the space industry out of necessity.

“When World War II broke out, NASA needed Black women to become computers because there weren’t enough educated white women to fill up the spots that were needed because the men were deployed because of the war,” Harris said.

That brought Mann into the highest-paying job a Black woman could get at the time.

“She was in the entering class in 1943 of 11 Black women who passed the Civil Service Exam," Harris said. "And so she went off to work with an 8-year-old, a 7-year-old and a 6-year-old, and the 7-year-old was my mom.”

Harris says her grandmother started the job shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt desegregated federal jobs, but not the physical workspace itself. So the Black women were sectioned off to the west side where there were ‘colored’ signs to label things like the restroom. Mann did not like those signs.

“They were actually on the wall, you could slide them off, and she’d put them in her purse and then she’d bring them home and my mother and my uncles would laugh about how their parents would fight about it because my grandfather thought of course she’d get in trouble, she’d get fired and he didn’t want her to lose the income,” Harris said.

More than 70 years later, Harris and Odom says it’s extremely important to recognize the contributions of these women.

“Our job at NASA is to inspire," Odom said. "To inspire people to enter into these very hard fields, difficult fields from a training standpoint, difficult from a professional standpoint, and to reach into underserviced, underrepresented groups. Females are unfortunately still part of that. African Americans definitely, African American females.”

“If people don’t know what women have done before them, sometimes young boys don’t think of women as authority figures and young girls don’t think that they can aspire for these positions,” Harris said.

Odom says without these hidden figures, we likely wouldn’t be where we are today.

“You’ve got to have a diversity of ideas if you want to do the hard things of space exploration and scientific discovery at that level. It takes everyone and it take that intermingling of ideas from multiple perspectives,” Odom said.